HARTFORWARD

We've been doing our new sort method for the last couple of weeks. Every few days, they try to change something to make it work more smoothly. They moved the initial scanners up the belt, leaving part of the recently cut out sections open and allowing the packages to get caught and fall off the belt. I've taken to standing in that spot to make sure they don't more than sorting which side they go on. Now, we put some of the walls back up and we're doing the sorting in that section. It's still not going well. Not enough room to work, and they keep changing things so it's hard to learn. So far I'm the only constant.

Today was the first day of Connecticon in Hartford. I had decided to go despite the fact the fun part of going, hanging with Liz, isn't gonna be much of an option this time. So far, I'm regretting it. I ended up stuck in traffic most of the way up. I got off I-95 and took the backroads for most of the jaunt, but got held up a bit towards the end. A 2 1/2 hour trip took me 6 hours. As it was already late, I was sure everyone had gone home by then so opted to just settle in.

Of course, stupid me, I realized I had forgotten my toiletries in all my packing. The closest pharmacy was already closed and I couldn't recall any others in the area, so I grabbed some food and went back to the hotel to check out the internet. Figures, the only open place was almost 2 miles away...through a shitty neighborhood, and right behind where Liz lives. Well, I finished eating and walked on over. I was thinking to myself hopefully Liz wasn't around and didn't see me thinking I'm stalking her or something, and then I saw a car that was ALMOST like hers in the parking lot. Similar shape, right color, right manufacturer, wrong make. But that was funny as hell, though. I was able to secure travel sized stuff for everything except shampoo and walked on back.

Thing is, having not yet seen any of the people I came all this way to see, I was feeling kinda lonely. Everyone I know is either sleeping or out partying, meaning nobody to chat with. I was thinking about blogging about how much of an outsider I feel like sometimes as I was walking when I got shit on. Yeah, that's right; a bird shat on me. I laughed. I guess the universe was telling me to just suck it up. So that's what I'm gonna do. I just need to figure out a cure for the loneliness that doesn't involve just dating. Yeah, that's right...I cut you certain people off there. You know who you are.

In other news, Tommy won't be making the BBQ next weekend. The dipshit, despite my NUMEROUS tellings, thought it was the 12th. He has jury duty and told me, till I reminded him--AGAIN--it was the 8th, which is now his GF's bday and he'll be in Virginia with her family. Seriously, I don't wanna hear any shit that I don't make any kinda effort to hang out with people or I'm always too busy. Every time I try, THAT happens. Hell, I'm still waiting for my bike ride with Tina!

THE FIRE THAT TIME

I went to bed early 'cause I've been having some trouble sleeping and felt wasted. I get woken up around 1 by pops turning off my window fan, and then hear him say there was a fire around the corner and the fan was blowing in the smoke. I got dressed and headed out, and sure enough our corner grocery store's building was ablaze. Every house in the are must've came, 'cause there was almost 20 trucks, not counting ambulances. They got some pics on the digital cam, and I got some on my phone. It was crazy, yo...straight out of a movie almost. No fatalities so far except for two cats in the top apartment that I know of. The Red Cross was on scene for the families as well as plenty of on-lookers. I'm hearing the building may be condemned. I hope not. I've been shopping there forever, hate to lose yet another piece of the past.

For those keeping score, that's now one fire behind us, one fire up the block from us, and two fires in front of us. All we need is the medical center to go up and we'll have a complete collection.


Some articles and videos:

http://www.ny1.com/Default.aspx?ArID=103191

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/32/31/32_31_bm_third_avenue_fire.html

http://wcbstv.com/local/four.alarm.bay.2.1107238.html

http://bayridgebrooklyn.blogspot.com/2009/07/6805-third-avenue-bay-ridge-fire.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/07/31/2009-07-31_4alarm_inferno_in_brooklyn.html

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07302009/news/regionalnews/brooklyn/firefighters_hurt_in_overnight_brooklyn__182108.html

http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-brooklyn-fire-four-alarm,0,5938726.story

GHOSTBUSTERS IN THE PARK

Hudson River Park does this Riverflicks thing during the summer, and on the line-up this year was Ghostbusters! Having missed Evil Dead at McCaren Park due to Index work, I was determined to make this one. I recruited Alex and his wife and we went. Had a good time, fun watching the comedy with ALL the people that were there. What was extra cool was the incoming storm created extra lightning effects when the movie got to the end. Nice touch right there.

CRAMPED QUARTERS

Because of low volume, management decided to move us all down to the first floor. Today was the first day, and what a clusterfuck it was. It started off all right with a nice steady flow of packages, but then they started shoveling it on. That makes it hard to sort them to the right sides of the belt when ya got no room to work. And then there was the little circus act of everyone trying to get out of the building, fighting traffic from the highway and each other for the same door despite there being two clear ones. Me and Rory didn't get to the route till 9:20 and by then it was just game over. I ended up with 7 lates on my end (somehow he got 1, bastard) but overall the first day revealed a lot of the flaws in the plan; both predictable and some that should have been seen. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

TIGHT SCHEDULE

Got an E-Mail from sis about her pending 4 month trip to Indonesia with Roy. She's making a stopover here first and is looking to arrange a little hangout with her peeps. Of course, she WOULD come when most of my time is booked up. Luckily, I can ditch Connecticon if I need to, however the CAG BBQ not so much. So, we'll see what happens.

Speaking of Connecticon, as planned last year I was to stay with Liz. However, thanks to some stupid doctors, her mother was prescribed an OD of meds that had adverse reactions. She's fine now, though, being given the RIGHT meds, but still needs to recover some. Not knowing how well she'd be in time, I opted to not stay over and maybe get a hotel or something. Steve also offered a place. But, I'm really wondering if I'm gonna wanna spend a whole weekend there. The show is mostly for the anime crowd; only reason I was gonna go was to hang with the CT peeps, mostly Liz. So we'll see.

Speaking of, she hasn't been online much nor have there been any texts outside of the brief exchange last Saturday. I figure she's probably busy with her ma or getting ready for the con. I'll probably check in with her in another week or so, just so I keep myself from being a pest like a certain other person we know. What sucks for me, though, is until, or if, she comes back to the old routine, my messengers and phone are once again useless. Sad, ain't it? Maybe I should get one of those mutli-messenger programs so I can just remove some of the extras...

In other friend news, I made the effort to contact Annie after about a month of not hearing from her. She's always at work when she's on, so the conversation wasn't too quick or in-depth. But, she also hasn't made a point to IM me since then. Hopefully it's because she's busy and not because of goddamn Mark.

Work's been super slow. I've been going on the road Mondays and held back to do "office work" the rest of the week. The new thing now is that with routes collapsed, we've got enough room to move the whole operation downstairs instead of having the building split by work group. We'll see how well that works out. It was also a sad day in that one of the recently-fired's locker was finally emptied today. Ah well. At least Ken finally got himself a locker, after a little ass fire lighting by me.

New McDonald's Mac Snack Wrap? Tastes just like a Big Mac...for half the price! Think I got me a new regular at the Big Mic...not that I go often anymore. Too much too soon gives me heartburn and indigestion. Damn I hate getting old. At least the rash is finally almost gone. Just wish my damn knee would heal up, though. Always hurts to climb things and jump.

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE 2

Tommy had been pestering me since last week about seeing the new Transformers, to make up for his failure to follow through with seeing the first and get me off his case. Since I was sure D would wanna go, we ended up putting it off till today. D had a surprise in the form of his new GF who wanted to see it (incidentally, the first of his I ever met). Luckily, Tommy's GF didn't wanna see the movie or else I woulda ended up being the 5th wheel (as usual).

The flick was good. Not great, but enjoyable and funny. After seeing a Megan Fox interview where she's light on the makeup I can finally say she lives up to her name. Although some of the wardrobe choices in the movie...meh. After, Tommy bailed and the rest of us went to dinner at Circles. D's girl didn't say much, but I got her laughing some so hopefully that was a good sign.

I texted Liz to say happy 4th and found out she saw Transformers too. Funny.

I finally finished Hell's Blood #3 and sent it to Hector & Liam (forgot about Keith). So far, Hector likes most of what I brought to the table. Just need to wait on Liam to do his thing so we can see where the script will ultimately end up and then we can begin work on #4 from there.