A Late Spring to Remember

I spent the morning finishing out the last book I have in the Donna Parker series. There's three more I haven't encountered, including the next one on Donna's trip to California. I may have to look them up at used book stores and yard sales. I genuinely enjoyed the four books I have. I'm also glad Donna made up with Ricky, even if she had to be embarrassed to do it. I like how much growing up both girls and all their friends do in the course of these four books. As Linda said at a chat, they're "refreshingly normal," and it was all a lot of fun.

I originally planned to spend the remaining morning and early afternoon doing things online. I mainly looked up job support groups. Mom's been suggesting that I join a support group for years. I didn't have much luck. Most of them seemed to be religion-based or too far away. I need to talk to people about how to get started and what to do now. I still want to do something with writing...but if not actual writing, then what? I have a list of jobs I made last year, but I haven't gotten around to doing much with it. I'm not even sure I could do anything in the writing or publishing business if it really is that difficult of a job market to break into.

And of course, when I was at my most frustrated, the phone rang. It was the Acme. Could I come in at 4? A stock person called out, and they had to pull cashiers to take over from them. No, I didn't want to go in, but I'd do it anyway. I have vacation coming up, and I still want to replace my laptop. I need to make money.

I went for a walk to cheer myself up and just to get out of the apartment. Ever since Matt at Dinosaur Dracula discussed Chipwitches in his blog article a few days ago, I've been craving them. I bought something similar at WaWa from Good Humor. It was a bit cheaper than Klondike's version. I haven't had a Chipwitch in years. The cookies weren't all that great, but the ice cream and chocolate chips tasted pretty good. I do wish the cookies had been softer. Oh, well. It felt nice on a hot day.

I got an idea on my walk. Instead of going straight home, I headed down Newton Avenue to the Center, a group of art-based counselors and psychologists in Oaklyn. I tried one of their therapists when I was looking for one, but she never returned my calls. I didn't have much more luck today. Once again, there was no one around, and no secretary or anyone in the waiting room to tell me who was there or if anyone dealt with career counseling. One of the male counselors seemed to deal with career counseling...but if the specialties on everyone else were any indication, the Center mostly seems to help teenagers and families. I took his card anyway and may still try calling him.

Ran more Sailor Moon when I got home as I looked up The Center and had a very quick lunch of leftovers. Hurried off to work as soon as I ate, ignoring the blistering heat and the upper 80 degree temperatures we'd been having all day. I wasn't the only one - there were several people outside, doing their lawns, even during the heat wave.

Once again, I probably could have stayed home. It was on-and-off steady, busier than Wednesday but not overwhelming. It's the beginning of the month, and we had several annoying customers. Not to mention, we also had some managers from other Acme offices who were there, doing inventory and checking out the store. Some were in a rush to leave; others weren't all that pleasant. I just did four hours and hurried out as quickly as I could myself.