OH CHRIST.

The absolute worst was last year during the Christmas season. I was trying to help a mute...not sure if it was elective or medical...which would've been fine in any case except he kept wanting me to do something I couldn't.

The rule is that if you made a purchase with a credit card and a gift card, if you return anything from your recipt, the returned money is split between two two cards--as in, you get money back to your card, and money put on a gift card.

Well, I tell him what's going on, and he shakes his head "no". So I start going through "do you want it all on a gift card/EZ Exchange card?" and he shakes his head again. After leading me on for a few minutes he finally writes down that he wants it all back on his credit card. I tell him we can't do that and show him why on the computer screen. He writes down again that he wants it on his credit card. Then I write down that I can't do that because the machine won't let me.

This is before the days when I started insisting the other associates actually teach me important shit like how to call a manager, so I literally argued with this guy for twenty minutes before Rich came back and told me to call a mananger, and then did for me because I told him I didn't know how (otherwise I already would've freaking done it).

Meanwhile the line is getting to be like, twenty feet long, and I'm thinking I'm going to catch hell from them once this guy leaves.

The manager finally showed up to override the machine and he leaves. At this point I am literally shaking from nerves and low blood sugar, and I've missed leaving on time for lunch because of this jerk.



In other news, I had an okay Thanksgiving. My first year without mashed potatoes, which made me sad :( I also forgot that punpkin pie uses condensed milk, so I might as well have eaten the mashed potatoes >_<

But that was after getting up at Ass o'clock to go up to Manhattan and watch the Macy's Parade from my sister's office building. Which I was not in the least excited about. I spent most of the morning crocheting a scarf for Char (I've finished crocheting Joe's). I tried to sleep on the way back home. And last night I went to bed at around 9:30 and I didn't get out of bed until five after 10 this morning.

I had a dream this morning that was pretty trippy, though. I was dreaming about this family and a family friend that had connection with...kinda a cult, but there was no poison Kool-Aid involved. The thing is this cult was "the Truth"--real religious/fantasy truth. I'm still not sure entirely what it was, but it involved animal guides, so some Native American religion, I think. So not only did the family+friend have to deal with people who didn't believe them, they also dealt with people who were determined on supressing the truth for one reason or another. Plus they had to deal with being very poor; part of the dream was dedicated to the daughter's marriage and their finances (the dream was set in the late 1800s so money was still interconnected like that). The father--who looked like Freddy Mercury--had been in the Civil War, too, and kept having hallucinations with the theme that he was disillusioned with life. Kinda Slaughterhouse Five-y.

The dream finally culminated with the son heading out on his own with his only spirit guide, a dog, but the Truth-Suppresser, who looked a lot like Timothy Spall in the thrid Harry Potter movie, came and mind-screwed the dog with some machine, which apparently would make the dog self-destruct in a little while. The son ran back home, and the daughter showed up there, too, and the family watched the sky from the parents' bedroom, seeing all these holographic images of animals crossing the sky.

They were finally interrupted by the family friend, who said she was going to ride the shockwaves of the dog's explosion and be the first person shot into space. The father didn't want her to do it--apparently it had real religious significance but involved either death or her never coming back--and she insisted that it was her dream. She then told him she wished that he'd find his dream. She left, and he looked back at his family and said that he already had.

Then apparently I wrote a paper on the "movie" and was late to work because of it.

Scratching the last part, I woke up thinking what an awesome book that would make if I actually introduced a plot.

1) One book that changed your life
--"God At The Speed of Light: The Melding of Science and Religion" by T. Lee Baumann. Literally it did, because it did the most to pull me out of my depression

2) One book you've read more than once
--Oh, man, just one? Okay, "The Commander" by Patrick A. Davis

3) One book you'd want on a desert island
--"East of Eden" by John Steinbeck

4) One book that made you laugh
--"Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

5) One book that made you cry
--The eleventh Baby-Sitters' club book, when Kristy's dog died

6) One book you wish you had written
--"The Bermudez Triangle" by Maureen Johnson

7) One book you wish had never been written
--"The Stranger" by Albert Camus

8) One book you're currently reading
--Just turned them all back in to the library, so nothing new :(

9) One book you've been meaning to read
--"The Color Purple" by Alice Walker

Now, I know who's the VP barely has anything to do with actual national policy. The VP doesn't really do much. But let's say for the sake of argument that Sarah Palin or Joe Biden could do anything, if elected. Specifically Sarah Palin.

See, this is why I can't stand party politics because I'll agree with one thing a candidate does, but hate another.

Sarah Palin is a Feminist For Life, as am I. This means we are both anti-abortion people who actually don't view having ten trillion babies as the Natural Order Of Things for women.

The Right-to-Life movement is very important to me. But equally important to me is enviornmental issues such as preserving endangered species and avoiding catering to the Big Oil companies. Palin has a horrifyingly bad record thereof...this is the same person who wants to take polar bears off the endangered species list. Plus she has vested interest in BP...

Politics = *Desk*

Also, note to self: just because a book involves Hindu dancers and promises mysticism, doesn't mean the books is well-written or actually finds a plot at some point.

Mood: frustrated

All right, anyone who's known me for any length of time knows that I am planning a novel. Many of these same people know it's had to be revamped several times.

The basic theme of the book is globalization, both it's pitfalls and it's benefits. The story starts in January of 2008 at the spring semester of most of the main character's freshman year of college. Most of the main characters are immigrants of some sort. The course of the novel will reveal such plots as racial and religious tension, drug-dealing, homophobia, and terrorism, as well as romances and friendships between the characters.

Now, for editing, beta-ing, and just generally groovy sharing purposes, I am going to give you a few characters at a time, where they come from, what their story is, and what their general plot is.

As I only have two characters named at this point, you're going to get those two:

Tresnja Bojana Illic and Nada Marija Illic

(All "j"'s pronounced as "y"'s)

Tresnja and Nada are paternal cousins from Croatia. Their fathers' parents were Croatian Jews, born in 1927, who were sent to Auschwitz in 1943. They survived and made their way back to their homeland to find their remaining families, to no avail. They eventually married in 1956, and had two sons, one in 1961 and the other in 1964. Their younger son, Tresnja's father, made a respectable marriage to a Jewish woman, but Nada's father married a shiksa, specifically a Catholic, and was consequently disowned by his parents. He and his brother remain good friends, however.

Nada was born in 1987, and Tresnja in 1989. They were very close, given their age and relations. Tresnja was raised with much influence from her grandparents, who were vehemently anti-goyim, but this was tempered by her uncle's family. Consequently she is tolerant of other faiths, but also very proud of and sensitive over her Jewish heritage.

The entire Illic clan left Croatia as wars began heating up in the Yugoslavic Confederation, finding their way to America. Their grandparents live far away from them, as the brothers' families moved in together to share costs. Family holidays are extremely tense affairs.

Tresnja and Nada both turned out to be extremely unlucky in love. Tresnja wound up dating another main character's brother, who was so influenced by his elitist grandfather that he became abusive. She was rescued by her current boyfriend (who I will probably detail next) whom she loves very much, but the incident was scarring, to say the least (not to mention, her grandparents don't want her dating a goyim). For Nada's part...well, she's a closeted lesbian. I'm contemplating giving her a "skirt" (the lesbian's "beard") in the form of her eventual girlfriend's older brother.

"Tresnja" means "cherry", which I picked because people with "cherry" personalities are supposed to be moody, popular, and nice; traits I imagine for Tresnja. "Bojana" means "battle", which I picked to signify the personal battles she fights over the series.

"Nada" means "hope", which her parents named her to signify their wish that their family would reconcile. "Marija" is a variant of "Mary", whose possible meanings include "sea of bitterness" (the separation), "rebelliousness" (which her parents had), and "wished-for child" (which she was).

"Illic" descends from "Elijah", which means "My God is YHVH". I picked this to highlight their Jewish heritage.

So, those are my first two characters. Thoughts? Historical details I've overlooked? Comments to let me know you read this?