State of Ruthieland.

I am a horrible blogger, I know. I missed two days in a row, after missing two days in a row. This week has been horrible for keeping to any kind of schedule--except, of course, that laid down by The Jobness.

Simon is here, and we've all been having a lot of fun--staying up too late, talking about everything, bonding, laughing our keisters off, you know how it is. It's going to be very sad to see him leave, but we're not focusing on that right now. We're focusing on tonight, when Kitty and Alex and Dustin all come over, and the eight of us game together and have a blast!

I am SO glad I traded to have tomorrow off...muahaha.

Other newsish things:
[o] Ryan got his first paycheck from Target!
[o] Got a piece of mail from the bank explaining why my debit card for our joint account has been so late in arriving--the lady we talked to never gave me this one, specific, apparently very important piece of paper to sign. >.< This never would have come to light if I hadn't talked to her in person after three weeks of waiting for the card. It still took two days for that piece of mail to arrive, and we kept missing the bank hours at the end of the week, so I have to take the signed thing in tomorrow and waiting another week or so before finally being able to access my own money without committing minor fraud. And the bank never thought to look into it. ARGH.
[o] Just had a phone call with Sameh--they found a kitten at her store's drive-thru today, and since animal control refuses to come and get it, she'll be bringing it home for the night until the shelter opens tomorrow. THERE'S GOING TO BE A KITTEN. IN THE HOUSE. EEEEEEEEE!

Is it obvious that I haven't had the chance to play with a cute animal since May?

The entire household is pretty much continuously pooped. Full time hours/first job in several years/new shift position = no life but work and sleep. It sucks. We spend a lot of time complaining.

My store gets its new store manager tomorrow, although she won't officially fill the role until September. Although I've only met her once, and that briefly, I've heard many good things about her. I'm hoping to have a talk with her about my schedule. It's been all over the place--mid to close to pre-close to what the hell? I understand that not everyone can have a rigid schedule of the same hours every week, but I hate being tugged around like this. My social life and sleep schedule are in complete tatters, and I'm at war with my control issues with time. I'm already neurotic about being on time and remembering my shift as it is, but when it's constantly changing, I'm a stressed-out wreck. I realized that last night was my first night of sleeping through for a few weeks, not waking up every few hours in a panic that I'd overslept or set the alarm wrong. I can't keep up like this!

Not to mention that I have absolutely zero time or energy to devote to anything but work, sleep, or chores and errands. I've been slipping at communicating with my family and friends, and I absolutely hate it--but the few times I have some time to spare and they're still awake/online, I'm so out of it that I'm useless to talk to. I'm so glad that my parents aren't the type to pull guilt trips, because I'm doing a good enough job on myself as it is!

Not to mention lack of exercise. Fortunately I've been getting better at what I eat (falling in love with greek yogurt, hummus, and edamame certainly helps!), and my job requires me to be up and moving 99% of the time, so I haven't had a real chance to blob out. Certain muscles groups are suffering, though--my arms and calves are getting plenty of exercise from running around the bar and lifting gallons of milk, but my mid-section gets zero work out at all. My generous and wonderful mother has been kind enough to offer to help pay for Curves, so all I need to do is find one. The one I thought was less than a mile from my work, wasn't there when I went searching. On the To Do List for tomorrow is calling their number and seeing where they're actually located so I can pay a visit.

Finally, my creative outlets have taken a real beating. The rare times I'm able to sit down and chill on the couch with the roomies and the Ryan, I'm sketching on either my sketch pad or the iPad, but that's about it. My attempts at photographing the rose failed, as I wasn't paying enough attention to the light quality, and the pictures looked just horrible. Still planning on trying my hand at "still life," with objects around the apartment, but I haven't gotten to it yet.

It's honestly really frustrating--I recently figured out that I do want to concentrate on photography, and really hone my skill at it, but I just can't find the chances. I know that "I would if I really cared," but I do care, and don't have the time! ARGH!

...wow, that's more typing than I was planning on doing. Lucky readers, you are now just about caught up with what's been going on in my life, and in my head. I still apologize for the failure at updates, and at the lack of calls and e-mails and such, but I hope this helps a bit.

...I've really been missing my friends and family lately, so I'll end on a shout out to all my loved ones in Connecticut: to the Thursday night gang, the fellow gaming nerds, the school chums, the Curves ladies, and especially my family. I would give anything to be able to spend just one hour catching up. I love you all. :)