What to Do About Work

I slept in this morning, then had Buttermilk Pancakes while listening to Brunch With the Beatles. George Harrison, who passed away around this time in 2001, was in the spotlight. Among the songs he did with the group was one that doesn't get played much, "For You Blue," along with classics like "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun." Though his earlier Apple solo singles were bigger hits, I prefer the songs he did with Warners later in the 70s and in the 80s, including "Blow Away" and "All Those Years Ago."

Spent most of the afternoon putting out the remaining holiday displays, starting with the Christmas bears. Every year from the mid-80s through the mid-90s, Mom would dress some of our stuffed animals and teddy bears in old winter clothes and display them on her hope chest. Because most of them were ours, the display was considered interactive - we could change their hats and scarves, and even give them tiaras and noisemakers for New Year's.

By the time I was in college, Mom had largely stopping doing the bear display. She didn't have the time, and in the years after my brother grew out of toys but before my nephews were born, there was no one to play with it. When I moved on my own in 2002, she turned the remaining Christmas-only bears and their clothes over to me. I couldn't figure out where to put them - I don't have a hope chest - until I realized that the space under the tree looked bare. I've put them there ever since.

I had a harder time getting the remaining displays organized. I changed so much around in the apartment in the winter and spring, I had to find new places for many items. It took me so long, I didn't even bother really decorating the small tree I usually give to the Sailor Moon dolls. That was moved a shelf down with my Belle toddler doll. The balls for the small tree are starting to look old, anyway. Mom gave me the small tree and glass ball ornaments in college, when we weren't allowed to have live greenery in the dorm rooms. I acquired the strings of (fake) lights and silver snowflake garland later from JoAnn's. I put up the "lights" and garland, but left the balls in their container.

It's become a tradition to run the three documentaries on Christmas history and traditions that Linda Young sent me in 2007 early in the season as I prepare for the holidays. Christmas Past is a British program that covers English history and customs, mostly via old movie and newsreel footage, recreations, and fascinating interviews with people who had lived or had relatives who lived through the history depicted. Christmas Unwrapped is a History Channel special that covers more-or-less the same subject from the American point of view, with greater emphasis on the original  history of the holiday before the Puritans banned it and how the Victorians changed it into something far more family-oriented. TV Guide Looks at Christmas naturally covered how the holidays are depicted on television. I was especially interested in the clips from variety specials. I was born just as variety shows were falling out of favor; the only major one during my childhood was Pee Wee Herman's very unique special.

Mom finally called during TV Guide Looks at Christmas. She was fine, but was worried about me. No one can give me more money. She's afraid I'm going to lose my apartment. I have to find a second job I can handle. The trouble is, first of all, transportation. I can't make a car and a license appear at will.. Second, I was really hoping to find something online, or a sensible office job. No one will hire me for a sensible office job, of course, and writing jobs don't pay. You can't do something that you enjoy and expect people to pay you real money for it.

Work was boring. It was dead tonight, which might have been just as well for my first night back. The worst that happened was I was late because I had to get our new work shirts. We're not going to wear those neon t-shirts in the winter. The replacements aren't great - the same bright-blue polos we had a few years ago, only this time made in a stretchy fabric that doesn't seem to breathe well. That'll be fun to ride to and from work in.

I'm not the only one getting bad hours, either. No one is happy about the hours. The college students are complaining about their late hours, and even the older women are upset. I'm going to have to talk to the manager tomorrow. He's crazy if he thinks he can keep doing this.