One Year in CA!!!!!

I started writing this on September 15th, the 1 year anniversary of my coming to California.  Then I got busy (as always) and them my laptop monitor decided to go haywire.  At the moment I have a borrowed computer and a bit of free time, so I figured I'd proofread what I had and post it to let you all know I'm still alive :)

My blog has been neglected lately, sorry. I don't know if I'll ever get around to posting about the last 2 days of the Polkadot Cadaver tour because it was soooo long ago. I've been really busy with work lately. Our department is finally getting the hours we need, and we're all at almost 40 hours. I'm not sure how my co-workers that are in school manage. I'm not sure what we're going to do during the holiday season if we're maxed out now. They'll probably hire some seasonal people and hopefully we'll just have extra people running around helping out...?

Days off tend to be spent accidentally sleeping in WAY too late because I'm exhausted from work, or trying to catch up on things like laundry, grocery shopping, being social, dishes, cleaning my room, etc.  One day off was relaxing in Santa Monica.  I have a bunch of fun pictures from the trip, but my computer wouldn't read the card from Corey's camera, and bugging him about getting them to me hasn't been working. I've also gotten back into jewelry making. I registered for an etsy store and once I get more pieces finished I'll open it up and post a link.  I've also made a few One-Eyed Doll inspired pieces and been talking to Kim about them.  I'm not sure if they'll end up in my store or theirs.  I sadly didn't make it on their fall tour with Mushroomhead.  The timing just didn't work out with some stuff I have to take care of.  Part of me is wondering what the crap is wrong with me.  A few years ago I was just another average fan of the band.  Somewhere along the way I became a friend, helped them shoot a music video, and have gone on tour with them twice.  Now they're asking me to go on more tours and quit my job to work for them, but I'm like "nah, I got other stuff I need to do right now..." Seriously, who the crap does that?!?!?  Most fans would kill to be asked this by their favorite band.  Fans reading this now probably hate me for turning down the opportunity.  I hope they realize (and I'm sure they do) that I'm super grateful for the opportunities, there was just some other stuff I needed to take care of.  Especially to make sure things work out in the long run.  Part of me really just wants to drop everything and live life up in the air, but I know at the moment I can do some things that will make the future easier for me, so I feel like (or a change) I need to do the responsible thing and do it while I can. 

Now, let's talk about the reason I'm finally getting around to writing an entry.  September 15th was the one year anniversary of the day I finally made it into the state of California!  It has been a great first year.  I moved out here with one of my best friends, Corey, and I couldn't have asked for a better person to have moved with.  He's an amazing person, great roommate, and has become so much more than a friend :D  We also got lucky and found an amazing roommate, Mary, and a nice place to live.  We've found a great group of friends out here.  We found decent jobs and have awesome co-workers.  It really has been an amazing first year out here.  I miss friends and family back in Michigan, but moving to California was one of the best decisions ever.

Now let's see, what have I been up to since September?  Corey and I managed to get 3 days off for our Birthdays (his is the 31st) and Halloween.  We went out to brunch on both of our birthdays.  I wish I could upload the picture of the gigantic Benedict Florentine on a croissant I had for my birthday, it was goooooood!  We also threw a big Birthday/Halloween party that a lot of our friends made it out to, despite being a week night.  I sadly don't have a really good picture of my phoenix costume, but you can see most of it in the picture below.

Cupcake tower!

Grant as Ash from Evil Dead and Corey as a Lumberjack from Monty Python

Emily - pregnant girl, Mary - Barbie, Me, Dee - Going into labor?

We ended up hiring 3 seasonal people at work.  One used to work there and current works at another Starbucks, so she's already trained.  Another used to work in the food area at Target, so she's familiar with things, and has been picking up drink making easily.  The other girl is completely new and has been having some trouble getting the hang of things.  We should have pretty good coverage for Black Friday though.  My scheduled shift (though we'll probably work overtime) is 2am-10:45am.  I'll probably just take a nap then stay up all night and let the coffee induced, sleep-deprived craziness ensue.  It should be fun.  Now that we have 3 extra people, hours may get cut though.  Fortunately, my manager is going to work it out so I'll be getting paid to go on the winter One-Eyed Doll tour!  Not only that, but it ends the 21st in Michigan, so I'll be home for a few days for Christmas.  It somehow all worked out perfectly!  I have my flight out to meet OED, just got my flight home and  my manager is working out the schedule.  I'm really excited!!!

For Thanksgiving this year we're getting together at our friends Jeremy and Rachel's place.  They used to live just down the street, but recently moved into a house a little bit further away.  It's sad that I can't just walk there anymore, but I'm excited that they now have a 2 bedroom house for roughly the price of their 1 bedroom apartment, and have space to host things like Thanksgiving :)

So that's what I've been up to for the past few months.  Hopefully it won't take me another 4 months to post again :)

St. Louis, Peoria and Spring Lake Park

Wow, times flies when you're busy.  Well, tour has been over for a while.  Luckily I had most of a blog written weeks ago, and I have notes about the rest of the tour, so you all still get to hear about it.

Tuesday, June 25th we were in St. Louis, MO for the third show of the tour. The place we stopped for lunch on the way there was right across the street from the 50's Place I ate at when moving from Michigan to California. 

 

This stuff is AWE-SOME!

Exotic Animal Petting Zoo (EAPZ) broke down on their way and didn't make it to the show :( I don't know if the lack of them being there had anything to do with it, or if it was just the area we were in, but there was a really small crowd at this show. It was still a great show though. Ally and Jaye were there, along with Norm and Jessica from the first VIP this tour. Jessica brought along her 5 year old son, Halon, who was adorable. He was rocking out during Polkadot Cadaver. Todd, the lead singer, kept trying to get him to come up on stage but he got all shy when they drew attention to him. We also have 2 new VIPs, but I wasn't there for the VIP after party so I don't know their names :( If you're reading this, hi! *waves* Guitarist Jason from Polkadot was rocking a OED “Dirty” shirt for this show. Also, during one song, whenever there was a part of the song he wasn't playing, he ran out into the audience and started pulling people closer to the stage, then run back up on stage to play. One guy he kept pushing forward went and sat down on a stool, so the next time he ran down he slide the entire stool closer to the stage.

Ally tagged the table...

Wednesday's show was in Peoria, IL. It wasn't very far away, so we got a hotel room for the night. We've been extremely spoiled this tour. I've gotten to sleep in a bed almost every night, and I've had a shower ever day. :D

Kick-a-poo!

We got to the venue in Peoria at 5:15. From the outside it looked like a liquor/party store. No one from the venue was there yet. A bit before 5:30 someone showed up to let us in, but they guy in charge of telling us where to unload everything wasn't there yet. So we left Mike and the trailer there and went to find food.  By the time we got back, things were unloaded and people were hanging about.  There were 4 local openers, and despite no EAPZ, One-Eyed Doll didn't start until after 11, and the entire show didn't end until after 1am.  The crowd was chanting "One-Eyed Doll!" while Junior and Mike were setting up.  Kim called me up on stage, as well as Mike and VIP Norm's daughter, Patience, and made us run in place while they played "I Love My Little Bus."  That was my first time seeing that song live, as well as "Black Forest."  The crowd was awesome, and almost knocked over some speakers they got so into the show!

Afterwards we attempted to take our VIPs (all of them veteran VIPs if I remember correctly) to this restaurant called Richard's.  Even though it was 2:30 in the morning, they were still serving alcohol.  And even though it's a restaurant, apparently no one under the age of 21 is allowed in while they're serving alcohol.  That meant no Patience.  So we called Ihop.  They were already closed for the night.  Denny's it was.  For some reason this Denny's food was really good though.  Super awesome VIP Skitz paid for all of OED and crew's meals.  Thank you Skitz!!!!  *BIG HUGS*  We ended up not leaving Denny's until 5 am.  We went back to the hotel room, showered, and left at 6:30 am for the next show.  Luckily Paulo stayed at the hotel and slept during the show so he was ok to drive the 8 hours to our next show in Spring Lake Park, MN.

We made it to Minnesota this time with out getting pulled over!  I guess a van with a trailer looks less rock star then a Sprinter driven by a guy that looks like a hippie :)  We got into MN early, did some laundry, got some coffee, ate some really good food, and still managed to get to the venue with time to set up.  This was the same venue in MN as last tour.  The one raffling off steaks and playing honky-tonk music.  If they were doing it this time, we were luckily there too late and missed it.  There were people there just playing poker/pool though, same as last time.

The above sign was in the restroom.  I understand that it's saying something to the affect of "Thank you for not using" but it could also be read as Management sarcastically thanking us for making it out of order, or us sarcastically thanking management for it being out of order.  Apparently Management also works at a gas station:

The audience was chanting for OED at this show too.  There were plenty of fans from when they played here last tour, and a guy who told me he saw them on YouTube and was instantly a huge fan.  One fan who saw them there with Otep thought they were headlining this tour, until they got their ticket and saw Polkadot Cadaver on the ticket.  But they were still excited they were there again.  

Awesome fan Chloe got to be on stage during the show.  She sang along and played the severed leg guitar.  She also was my awesome helper at the merch table.  We were dressed almost the same and both had pigtails in our hair.  I'll have to see if I can find one of the pictures somewhere.  We called her mini-mini-Kimberly.  She was great at showing off merch and dancing during Polkadot Cadaver, without any training!  I taught her how to give Mike a disapproving head shake, so now she knows how to do everything.  Either I have someone to call in if I'm ever sick, or I need to watch out because someone may be gunning for my job!

After that show we had one single VIP named Tim.  We ended up at some local diner/hamburger place, where the guys from Polkadot Cadaver showed up later.  Tim was also the first VIP to get to participate in a VIP dance-off, something we continued at the rest of the VIP parties.  I think some video ended up on OED's facebook page.  Go see if you can find it and watch that while you wait for me to write about the last 2 shows and getting stuck in TX for a few days.  :)

Beginning of Tour

Sunday was the day of the first show. We'd stayed the night in Joliet, but ended up having to head into Chicago to find Junior a new fedora, and some costume stuff for Kim. We got really lucky and found this awesome hat shop that carried a ton of different hats, and they were cheaper than what Junior usually pays. Mike even ended up going back and getting a hat. It was also just down the road from an AWESOME costume shop. Fantasy Costume has just about everything. There's full costumes, accessories, costumes for rent, wigs, make-up, props, etc etc etc. They even carry foam display heads, which I had been looking into getting, but Kim said she had 3 and I could have/borrow one :) Kim used her birthday money from fans to get a bunch of stuff for tour. We bought so much stuff the girl gave us a discount, and even gave us free hats with their logo on it. There were 5 of us but only 4 hats left, so she let Paulo have the kitty ears he was going to buy for his daughter for free as his “hat.” You can order online and they ship anywhere, so you should definitely check them out!

After our shopping trip we needed to get to the venue for the first show. It was at MoJo's in Joliet where they played with Otep on the last tour. It was a really good crowd for a Sunday night. They played an unreleased song, as well as UFO which I've never seen live before. We also had 13 VIPS!!!!! Many of them were repeat VIPs, and many we'll be seeing at other shows. Allie who followed us around for 6 shows last tour was back, as well as her better half, Jaye this time :) We had the regular VIP party at Denny's because there were so many, but after we had a flan after party in the parking lot. We were seriously there for at least another hour hanging out in the parking lot. VIP Mike was teaching roadie Mike some juggling tricks. We decided that there should be a super hero that shoots flan from his wrist like Spiderman shoots web, except he'd hold his had like an “f” in sign language. We ran around the parking lot “flanning” each other like that. I think a few people have video, and there's even video of people taking the video. You'll have to check the One-Eyed Doll facebook page to see if anyone posts them. It was a super fun night despite going to bed exhausted at 4am.

We stayed at our hotel room again that night since the drive to St. Joseph, MI wasn't that far. On the way, we stopped at the coffee shop and Italian/Greek restaurant/store in Merrillville, IN that we went to 3 times last tour. It was as delicious as we remembered :) We were hoping to stop again on our way to St. Louis, but it was a little bit out of the way, and we were running behind, as usual :(

Second show was even better than the first! Even though One-Eyed Doll had never played in St. Joseph before, I think over half the crowd was OED fans!!! Mardie from last tour (as well as my second show ever years ago), was there, as well as 4 of our VIPs from the night before. This show they played Recipe 4 success and PAO!, both of which I'd never seen live before, as well as UFO again. It's fun being on a different style tour because I get to see different songs and different interaction with the crowd. During one song Kim even gave a shout out to Allie and Jaye! :D We only had the 5 VIPs that night, Brad from the night before and last tour didn't make it :( so we just rode around in the van and listened to a few unreleased songs. It was a good time, as we got back to our hotel room early since we had a long drive the next day. The hotel was actually booked for us by the venue! This never happened last tour and I didn't realize it was a thing! The Super 8 was pretty nice too! Thanks Czars in St. Joseph! Before we settled in for the night we drove around for a bit looking for a little something to eat, when we passed a Meijer. For those of you not from the area, it's like a Wal-Mart but awesomer. I've said/thought so many times since moving to CA that I miss Meijer. They're 24 hours, carry just about everything, you can run there in the middle of the night to pick something up, I know exactly what section to find most things in, it's fairly cheap, and they're everywhere. There's no place open late in my city and no place that carries everything. Plus, I can never seem to find what I want half the time and go to 3 different stores trying to find it. But anyway... we stopped into Meijer, got a variety of food and a few things we needed before heading to our nice hotel room to get a few hours of sleep before our drive.

All the fans there to see One-Eyed Doll

Grainy because I was so far away :(

The awesome rainbow alarm clock at our hotel

Funny side story from the show that night, and yet another reason I'm glad I'm not addicted to my phone. Mike was texting on his phone and accidentally went into the women's restroom because he wasn't paying attention :P

More Pre-Polkadot

Friday there wasn't really anything we needed to get accomplished, so we actually got to sleep in!  I don't think I woke up until 12:45.  That's about 10:45 LA time, which is about normal for me.  We just hung out drinking coffee and taking advantage of Johnny's internet, then went to grab some "lunch" (it was 4pm) at a Korean BBQ place.

Not very vegetarian friendly, but I still left full :)

After hanging out for too long (as usual) at Johnny Zero's, we went to pick up Paulo. You might remember him from the end of the last tour. Well, he's going to be our driver for this tour! We stopped for dinner at a place called Burguesa where we all became space explorers. 

 

Paulo then drove through the night while the rest of us slept. At some insanely early hour we stopped in Memphis, TN for breakfast at a fun little place called the Eclectic Cafe. Eventually at some point in the early afternoon we made it to Salem, IL and stopped for lunch. While we were there the sky grew dark and it got really windy. Junior and Mike looked up the weather, and we were going to be heading straight into a ton of bad weather. We hung out in the little strip of stores the restaurant was in, hoping some of it would die out. Kim got a few cool things at this awesome little store called The Attic. It was like a thrift store, but everything was new. As we were leaving the girl working (who's also the owner) complimented me on my “Be My Friend” hoodie. We explained that it was Kim and Junior's band and gave her a One-Eyed Doll sticker. She was pretty awesome. If you for whatever reason find yourself in the little middle of nowhere town of Salem, Il you should go check out The Attic. There was a pawn shop down the strip from The Attic and Junior was hoping to pick up some VHS tapes to watch in the van. But they were closed. What kind of a pawn shop closes at 5 on a Saturday? There was also a Dollar General in the strip where I picked up some fun, cheap, thick eyeliners in a few different colors. Eventually we decided just to try heading out, and the rain wasn't too bad. Random comment – I was a Zebra Fruit Stripped Gum semi-truck going the other way on the highway. I didn't realize that gum still existed! Now I keep seeing it at every gas station we stop at. We got into Joliet about 10pm Saturday night, and got a hotel room. We then spent the next hour and a half trying to find some place to eat that was still open. What's up with that, Joliet?!?!

Pre-Polkadot

As I mentioned before, One-Eyed Doll is heading back out for a mini-tour.  What I haven't mentioned because I've been so busy with work and making sure it's being organized, is Mike and I are going again!  It's a short tour, and there's no wifi in our van this time, but I'm hoping to attempt to blog again.

Tuesday I flew out of Long Beach, CA.  I was a little nervous because I've only flown about 4 or 5 times before, never flown by myself, and never even been to this airport.  Things went super well though.  Corey drove me to the airport, and we left early so we'd get there with plenty of time.  We'd planned on getting some lunch once we made it to Long Beach, but there was nothing around the airport, and we didn't want to spend money on parking, so he just dropped me off.  I got checked in and through security.  The machine randomly selected me for extra screening, which meant they swabbed my shoes and put the swab in a machine to test it.  It came back negative and sent me on my way.  Only took about an extra minute.

The airport was really small.  I've never been to an airport this small before.  For the first time I walked out on the cement and up a ramp to get into a plane.  Here's me plane, with a minions blimp on the background:

While waiting I grabbed some coffee, sushi, and a "Southern Style" red velvet cupcakes for later, and read my book.  The wait wasn't very long at all.  And because it was a small plane, maybe 80 people max, it was quick boarding.  My seat was in the very last row, across from the back lavatory.  It was really loud back there.  Luckily I had a window seat so it wasn't so claustrophobic.  They served complimentary pop, coffee, water, etc and food and alcohol for an additional cost.  I skimmed through the US Airways magazine, and before I knew it we were in Phoenix already.  I was staying on the same plane to get to Austin, but I still had to de-board and re-board.  When leaving I asked the guy at the counter when re-board was.  He said it was in 27 minutes, and asked me where my seat was.  I told him, and his response was "That's a TERRIBLE seat!" There were a few open seats still at that time, and he moved me to a window seat in the emergency exit row.  So from Phoenix to Austin it was quieter, and I had more leg room.  We also got complimentary drinks again. 

Over all the flights went super well, and we ended up landing in Austin a bit before 11pm.  Junior picked me up from the airport and we went to get Kim form her friend Crystal's apartment.  I finally got to meet Crystal!!!  We became friends on Facebook at the beginning of last tour, but she was sick the day of the Austin show :(  She's also been a loyal reader of my blog :)  Hi Crystal!!!  *waves*  We grabbed some dinner with her, then packed up some stuff from the practice room Kim and Jason had been renting, and headed to the hotel room they've been staying in.

Wednesday we picked Mike up, ran some errands, then spent the afternoon in 100 degree weather moving things out of their storage unit to get to the merch we needed in back.  It sucked, but we got it done.  Dropped Mike back off so he could go to a birthday party, then had sushi at Kim and Jason's favorite sushi place made by their favorite sushi chef, Toshi.  He made me an AMAZING veggie roll packed with all sorts of yummy things.  Afterwards we stopped for Kim's newest addiction - shaved ice.  Not like a snow cone, it's more like an ice cream with toppings.

Thursday was spent finishing up errands before leaving Austin, like getting the van's oil changed and eating at delicious Pars Mediterranean Deli while waiting, packing up the practice space. Then (way later then intended) we headed to Johnny's Zero's house in Dallas for the night.  And here we are, Friday morning afternoon, hanging out at Johnny Zero's before making our way to the first show in Joliet, IL  :)

Gift tips

There were a lot of things I noticed when it came to fan gifts on the last One-Eyed Doll tour, and with another tour coming up, I thought I'd give you some tips.

It's almost always better to mail gifts.  I know you want to give them to Kim and Jason in person, but they have very limited space in the van.  Plus, things get moved around, lost, possibly searched by the police, and there's a good chance things will get ruined or lost.  You can always bring the gift to the show so Kim can put a face with the gift, but then send it to their PO Box:

ATTN: Kimberly or Junior
PO Box 80017
Austin, TX 78708  USA

That way you know for sure it will be ok.

If you want to give them food, keep in mind they live out of a van.  No microwave.  No refrigeration.  No utensils.  Things that will get stale or moldy are a bad idea.  Resealable packages are awesome!  If it's going to get stale or spill all over, it'll probably be thrown away soon after it's opened.  Also, as much as they appreciate goodies that are homemade with love, they can be questionable.  They never know what crazy fan may be trying to drug them.  Or maybe you didn't realize the milk you used was expired and now they both have food poisoning.  You never know what might go wrong.  The van can also get warm sometimes sitting in the sun, so stay away from things that might get melty.

Some things we went through a lot of on tour - Dried Seaweed, Japanese fruit jelly cups, Tea Bags (Kim has a herbal throat coat tea she likes, I don't know exactly what it's called, but we all drank a lot of various teas as well), Emergen-C, dried fruit, pretty much anything yummy and healthy to snack on that you can get from Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, etc.  Kim also mentioned once that Hi-Chews were her favorite candy.

Kim is allergic to bananas, a certain preservative they use in some dried fruits (a quick google search makes me think it's Sulfur Dioxide, but I'm not 100% sure), and cats.  As far as I know, Jason's good with just about everything

Hmm...  I thought I had more tips when I started this.  Well, if I think of anything else I'll let you know!

Post Tour

For 6 weeks this was my home

This was my messy bedroom

This was my family

Photos by Yacob

Photo by Johnny Zero

I got to hang out with a lot of awesome people day after day (many of whom I sadly didn't get pictures with)

Nosaj, all around awesome guy

Tristan, Otep's tour manager and the guy that makes everything happen

Erik, bassist for Otep

Adriana, Picture Me Broken's merch girl

Erik, Shaun, Justin & Jimmy

Met tons of amazing fans

I went to so many amazing places and had so many adventures.  It was such an amazing time, and it was really hard to go back to the "real" world after all of that.  But, that's where I've been stuck for the past month.  So, what have I been up to?

Well, the first week wasn't too bad because I took work off, plus Mike, Kim and Junior were still in the LA area.  So I caught up on sleep, hung out with them, and did one of my favorite things that I wasn't able to do on tour - BAKE!

A few days after tour ended, we all met up where we started - back in Little Tokyo having $2 sushi boats.  This time Rob Ross joined us.  We discovered that there's a cool little vintage thrift shop across the street from the sushi place.  We also learned I may have dislocated a rib on tour...  I can't remember how much I wrote about it, but I had that really bad cough for a while, and soon my side was super sore.  Once tour finally ended and I had time to deal with it, I noticed that one of the ribs was sticking out of line from the others.  Plus it was still extremely painful to sneeze.  It wasn't as painful in general anymore since I wasn't carrying around tubs of merch on a nightly basis, but it was still sore.  I was telling them about this, and Rob Ross looked it up on his phone.  Apparently it's possible to dislocate a rib from coughing.  I've looked into it though, and it seems like if it was actually dislocated it would be a lot worse and a lot more painful.  *shurgs*  It's a month later now, it's better, but I think it's still out of line a bit and every so often lifting something or sneezing makes it hurt.

After sushi we all went to see "Oz: The Great and Powerful."  It was super cool because part of it was filmed in Michigan and a lot of local actors I know are extras in it.  My friend/Corey's acting coach Ralph even has a featured part.  If you've seen it, or are going to, he's the girl at the beginning's dad.

After Oz we hung out at Rob Ross' until some ridiculous hour in the morning before I finally told them I needed to get home before I fell asleep.  We spent forever looking up directions and trying to decide what the best way for me to get home, but it didn't matter because in the end Mike ended up coming back with me so he could hang out, and sleep on a couch rather than the floor.  He got to try my awesome nutella cupcakes.

I sent some back with him and Rob Ross, who'd heard of them, got to try one.  Right after he sent me a Facebook message letting me know they were "amazingly delicious!"  I also discovered that the Wine Bar down the road my friends preform at has a open mic night on Sunday nights.  So that's were we took Mike Sunday night.  He only got to play 2 songs, but for a change he got to play for someone other than just me.   He also met a guy that works at the wine bar, who also played at open mic night, that's originally from Austin.  How crazy is that?  They exchanged contact info, and now Mike has another connection both in LA and Austin. Since tour he's been doing a lot of open mic nights in Austin and setting up shows with his band mate.  If you live in the Austin area, you should go bug him on his music page and get him to post when and where he's playing.

Besides Nutella cupcakes, Corey and I made homemade pretzels

I baked more of the cranberry walnut bread I brought on tour for Mike, Kim and Junior

 
Corey made some awesome homemade Risotto

Eventually, Mike had to go back to Austin :(  We had a going away party at Rob Ross'  Kim made some awesome dip, we had a bunch of snacks, and watched "Les Misérables."  Kim thought Rob Ross' sandal looked like a bikini bottom, so she turned his foot into a girl.

I don't think I mentioned it, but when we were in Austin, Kim let me raid her costume closet.  I found an awesome black dress that fit me, and it came on tour.

I was hoping to buy some purple ribbon to switch out the black, then wear it with my black and purple stripped stockings, but we never made it to a craft store :(  It got to be the last few shows of tour and I hadn't worn it yet, so in Phoenix I ended up wearing it :)  After tour when we were getting my stuff out of the limo Kim gave it to me :D  *fan girl squee*   :D  So I now own a Kimberly Freeman costume piece :D

Eventually my time off ended and I had to go back to work :(  After being gone for 2 months, I still remembered how to do everything and was able to jump right back in.  It was still super weird being back though.  It's sad because I really like my coworkers, the job itself isn't that bad, but dealing with the busyness, being understaffed,  ridiculous customers, the corporation I work for being clueless, etc, etc, etc. I really hate going to work.  The hardest part about being back the first day was not making sarcastic comments every time a customer asked something stupid.  Junior and Kim are trying to figure out a way I could work for them full time, which is awesome, but I also want time to do my own costume stuff.  So at the moment, my life is crazy up in the air and I have no idea where I'm going to land.  But that's ok because everything always seems to work itself out in the end :)