I worked a nice, short, low stress shift at work. My boss sent me outside to sample Frappuccinos™ and I was standing there, feeling like a total dork, when this guy came up to me, shook my hand, and thanked me for my sampling efforts. Turns out he was the Regional Director... a very important guy whose name I've been hearing for two years. He was driving past the store and saw me sampling outside and then decided to visit us.

Kind of ridiculous, but I got brownie points for that. We all did; the store looked great and a bunch of our regulars came in while the VIP was there. My manager knew their names, and we were all friendly and banter-y and providing a quality Starbucks Experience. Go team!

Speaking of work, here's the stupidity of the day. Our blended tea posters disappeared, and today I found out why. You see, they had the slogan "collapse into cool" on them, and someone complained that the word "collapse" was not "September eleventh friendly" so they recalled them.

Isn't that the stupidest, most reactionary thing you've ever heard? Next thing you know, they will make us hide the bean grinders--- can't have two towering objects side by side, it might traumatize the customers!

Oh, and speaking of the customers, it has been B.O. week at Starbucks. I have never encountered so many stinky customers in one week. One of our regulars smells worse and worse every time he comes in. He leaves a cloud of stench behind him at this point. It is truly disgusting, and I wish I could do something about it. "Excuse me, sir, your foul and mysterious odor is making our customers nauseous. Would you mind leaving? Forever?"

A lot of our customers are great people, though. I stood around talking to one of our regulars for almost an hour today. When I think about it, there are an awful lot of customers who brighten up my day whenever I see them. Whether they're particularly cute, friendly, flirty or what have you. Definitely the best part of the job is the people. The ones who don't stink, anyway.

You know, it is kind of a paradox. I have this fierce misanthropic streak, yet I love interacting with people. It's weird. And if I think about it too much, my head starts to hurt.

What else is there? God, I was going to talk about my writing night. This entry completely ran away from me, didn't it? Let's get back on track. My writing night. I decided to go to the new Barnes & Noble that just opened by my house. I freaking love Barnes & Noble. Evil corporation or not, I can't help it.

I walked in and thought, I am in trouble.

They have a music section (almost got the new Bowie album, which I want desperately, but the guy said it might go on sale so I should hold off) a DVD section (I would have bought Father Ted if they'd had it) in addition to a really excellent café (had a cup of black coffee and what my people call a "stroopwaffel"-- a caramel waffle cookie thing) a gift section, a huge magazine section, and books everywhere, of course. It's my new Mecca.

The music section has this cool system-- and obviously I don't shop at music stores very often, because this is the first time I've seen it-- where you can go to a listening station and by scanning the bar code on the back of any CD, instantly be listening to the CD and reading all kinds of detailed information about it. Fancy!

There were a couple of disappointments. First, they have a much bigger VHS selection than a DVD selection. I hope they get around to fixing that soon; who watches VHS anymore? And the poetry section isn't big enough. No Dorianne Laux. No Linda Pastan. No nifty new anthologies. No replacement copy of The Body Electric. I was sad. Llama face.

I brought my big fat poetry notebook and all the best intentions in the world. You know what I ended up doing? Reading Good in Bed by Jennifer Wiener. And when I say reading it, I mean, I read it. I sat there for two hours or whatever and read the whole book. I cried at the end, even. I was sitting there in the Barnes & Noble café, surreptitiously wiping my eyes every five minutes.

I give the novel a thumbs up. The events are a little unrealistic (I could have done without the Hollywood stuff... give me something I can relate to, please!) but I love the plus-size empowerment message and I could really relate to the main character. And it's funny, too. I am still laughing at the hairy acorn image. (Don't ask.)

Anyway, it was a nice, leisurely night. I browsed through the store, read that book, almost bought like, twenty other books, and then finally got around to doing some poetry stuff.

I did a bunch of free writing for this collaborative project I'm working on. I think reading Good in Bed might have had an interesting outcome, actually, since the topic we're focusing on is the body, and the book was about body image... the writing might have come out more raw, more personal, and ultimately more interesting. I'll have to re-read it tomorrow and see.

I found a bunch of contests I want to enter too. I really need to do another submission wave and start stepping up the pace on entering contests. I also need to get a manuscript together that I can start entering contests with. (My thesis, I guess, or at least a preliminary draft of it.) Publication credits are going to count when it comes time to apply for teaching jobs.

And ideally, I'll win a contest and have my thesis MS published and be covered with prestige and glory. (Hey, I said ideally. A girl can dream.)

Last night was good too. I worked all day, went for a ride, and then went over to Megan's to eat takeout and watch North by Northwest.

I love being able to step out of the shower, put my wet hair in a ponytail, throw on baggy jeans and an old T-shirt, and go to a friend's house just to chill out. I haven't really been able to do that since I moved here; all my friends live over the bridge, and somehow it's not the same. Any jaunt over the Bay Bridge seems like a serious outing, requiring effort and lipstick.

I put up the movie page I've been meaning to do for a while, where I can talk about all the movies on the AFI list. (My goal is to watch them all, remember!) I've seen more than one, but I haven't had a chance to write anything about the other ones yet. I didn't really write a review, just a few random inarticulate thoughts.

Overall, I liked the movie. I'm glad I didn't read the DVD cover first, since it gives the whole plot away. It was cool, having no clue what might happen next. And the film does have some interesting subtext. The more Hitchcock movies I see, the more interested I get in that man's psyche. He's got some Mommy issues, I think.

My bike ride was good too. I overslept on Saturday and Sunday, and didn't ride my bike either day. I felt so guilty that I decided to go on Monday, even though I had to squeeze it into my schedule. But I woke up on Monday with all my muscles aching, as if I had gone on a strenuous ride the day before. I really had to think, "Wait, did I ride yesterday? I didn't... did I? Why do my hamstrings hurt?"

I think what it boils down to is that I need to stretch more. I hardly stretch before or after rides, which is bad. I am losing my flexibility, and we can't have that. My sexual repertoire would be seriously undermined, for one thing.

And finally, speaking of sex, I continue to be profoundly embarrassed by my taste in men. Every time I stop dating someone, everyone's all, "Oh, we never liked him anyway." I love the feeling that all these people are talking behind my back about the sucky guys that I am attracted to. It's humiliating. Just fix me up with someone non-sucky already! Or get a screening process going, or something.

(No, if you're reading this entry, you are not one of the sucky guys. I promise.) (Unless you're Matt, in which case, you're still a dillhole.)

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