Zeo's Thoughts and Wanderings

This morning, I was woken up by an honest-to-goodness nightmare. I don't know exactly when it happened, but it was before the alarm went off, and it felt like I tossed and turned for a lot after it, trying to shake it off, and never did manage to fall back asleep.

It wasn't the old zombie nightmares, or anything worthy of a horror movie. No, this was something a lot more personal and a lot closer to home.

In the nightmare, I'd agreed to work the retail section of the print shop for a day, to help out. In the agreement, I wasn't supposed to work the counter or the register, just run the machines, which was why I'd agreed to help. That, and in my dream, my dad was the supervisor, and I was helping him out.

So. I walked into the main area, and this woman at the counter immediately spotted me and hailed me. "Excuse me," she said, in a snotty-haughty-I'm-better-than-you-because-you're-behind-the-counter-and-I'm-not tone of voice, "Correct me if I'm wrong, but MY business keeps YOU employed."

No one else was moving to help this woman, so I gritted my teeth, pasted on my best fake retail smile, and brightly answered, "That's not exactly how I'd phrase it, but how may I help you?"

She proceeded to go through this overly long and needlessly complex list of instructions that I summarized as, "So, you need three sets of this, in color?" I remembered my retail training, upselling, offering her binding or stapling. She went for the stapling, and I was feeling semi-okay at that point. Then she handed me the payment...a large handful of coins, mostly pennies. I knew she was waiting for me to have to count them all out to make sure it was right. I was shaking. Luckily, since I wasn't supposed to work the register, I just handed all the coins to Dad, who apparently had a change counter installed on the register just for smart-ass customers like that. I took the thick sheaf of papers and looked for the color copier.

And that's when I realized the color copier was a tabletop version. Flatbed. No feeder. No stacker. No stapler. I was going to have to hand-scan, then hand-collate, that job. I turned slowly to look at the self-serve area. The self-serve color copier was what I'd expected to find: feeder, stacker, stapler. But that woman was still at the counter, and I knew, I just knew, that if I took her copies to the self-serve area, she'd throw a fit.

That must have been the straw that broke me, because that's where I woke up, that woman's voice and words still in my head. I haven't had to work retail/customer service in three years now. But the six years I did work it have left me scarred. I've had people fling handfuls of change, mostly pennies, at me as payment, sneering, "You count it," while their children look at them, horrified by the manners their parents aren't displaying. I've had people point me out to their kids, "See, this is why you go to school, so you don't end up like her." Little do they know, I have a B.A. Fat lot of good it did me. People looked at me, saw the polo shirt and name tag, and treated me like something scraped off the bottom of their shoe. Treated me like a disposable person, like someone not worthy of respect or civility. And all I was allowed to do in return was paste on that fake smile and pretend like it didn't bother me.

Going by last night's mental blockbuster, I still have a ways to go.

We're going on a small vacation in October. Said vacation requires a formal dress.

I found one, at Goodwill, that fit reasonably well, for $12.50.

I love Goodwill. :-D

Only problem is, it's a mite too cleavagey than what's appropriate. So that will be fixed before we leave.

But still! Dress! Pretty lavender satin formal dress for $12.50!

Also, for some reason, my brain decided to concoct a televison series crossing Pirates of the Carribean with Doctor Who in my dreams the other night. What is it with that Doctor and Captain Jacks? Overall, the dream itself wasn't too bad. The television portrayal of Orlando Bloom's character had a much better sense of humor than the movie version, and I liked how they portrayed him beind tied to the ship (long length of rusty chain attached to the mast).

I've been disoriented all day. Oh well.

Well, not so wild and crazy, just sort of a "huh." THe last dream of the night/morning (I'm not sure exactly when it happened, as I had a very choppy night's sleep) was that I was in some sort of car trip with jetwolf, stephaniejane2, and superstevess. We were driving around "my town," but it wasn't my town as in where I'm living now. I think it might have been a hybrid of western NY state and NE Ohio. Jet Wolf was driving. I'm not sure if ultrace was there or not, but I was in the front with Jet Wolf and Steve and Stephanie were in the back. The part I remember most is that there were these flitting little red and black birds that I'd never seen before, and I asked Steve what they were. They weren't cardinals, though there were a ton of those, too.

I so don't want to go to work. I want to crawl back into my bed and sleep for a week. Solidly. Not choppy like last night. :-P

Had an interesting dream last night/this morning. I think it was a combination of Alias and Battlestar Galactica. I only say Alias because there was a wig/disguise involved, and I think the guy who makes her gadgets (name unrecalled because I haven't watched Alias since season one) was there. But it might have been McKay from Stargate Atlantis.

Anyway. Kara (Starbuck) had to go undercover in a red wig (like real red hair, not Ronald McDonald hair) and used the name "Sophie." While in the Sophie disguise, she started a relationship with Lee (Apollo). However, when the time came to end the Sophie charade, the only way they could do it was to stage this massive car accident in a parking lot. Lots of explosions, injuries. I think Kara got a pair of nail scissors to the head, creating a lovely gash. Lee was suitably upset at "Sophie's" death, which was odd, because Kara was still his friend. Eventually, near the end of the dream, Kara couldn't take it anymore and told Lee that she had been Sophie. He didn't believe her at first, until she found a wig and proved it. I'm not quite sure how the next bit happened, but he was agreeing to sleep with her if he could call her "Sophie." She seemed skeptical, asked what she'd be getting out of it, and he gave her this amazing kiss.

The gadget guy came into play when Lee and Adama were examining evidence at the crash and he'd found a bullet that hadn't properly fired. It was still in its casing, with just a small hole in the side. Yes, I know that's not how bullets work, but hey, it made sense in the dream. And yes, I am a massive Lee/Kara shipper, and I have no idea what happened with that guy on Caprica. I missed that episode, so I don't know if they knew each other before that or not. It just seemed awfully quick to me. She's pining over Lee, lands on Caprica, meets this guy in the resistance and next thing we know, she's in love with him? After knowing him less than a day? WTF? Have to do some research on that.

Last night I dreamt that mimisgrotto and her husband came to visit for a few days.  This was probably spurred by 1) reading jetwolf's lj, as that happened to her, and 2) finding a Jem poster yesterday I thought Mimi might like.

What really struck me as odd, once I woke up, is that my apartment in the dream was a combination of the 3-bedroom apt we have here, and the 2-bedroom I had back in OH.