Vail Life

Sheesh what a week. I am doing my Friday rant on Sunday because it has been so busy. Justin's Grandmother-in-law became very ill last week. His wife and her parents own and operate a gift shop in Edwards. So when one of their family members got sick the store lost 3/4 of its employees as they race back to Chicago to help out. So they asked me if I would like to help out at the store.

Because of that I worked some horrendous hours last week. The worst day went as thus.

6:00 pm - 9:45 pm - sleep
9:45 pm - 10:45 pm - get ready for work
10:45 pm - 7:30 am - Work at Marriott
7:30 am - 8:00 am - Travel home, undress
8:00 am - 9:30 am - Sleep
9:30 am - 10:00 am - Get ready for work
10:00 am - 6 pm - Work at Any Occasion
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm - Eat, get ready for bed
7:00 pm - 9:45 pm - sleep
9:45 pm - 10:45 pm - get ready for work
10:45 pm - 7:30 am - Work at Marriott
7:30 am - 8:00 am - Travel home, undress
8:00 am - 9:30 am - Sleep
9:30 am - 10:00 am - Get ready for work
10:00 am - 2 pm - Work at Any Occasion
2:00 pm - Finally some real sleep.

Summary:
Total time = 44:00
Total work time = 29:30
Total sleep time = 9:30
Total down time = 4:00

So I have been working quite a bit in the last week and have not had any time to work on the site. I will try and do the comic after this blog update but may not get to the rant until later this week. Oh and work at the Marriott has been shitty to. The only reason I survived this last week is because I actually enjoy working at Any Occasion. It is a friendly laid-back environment. There has only been one customer in the last week that complained, and it was about something that happened long ago. I get at least 2-3 people a night at the Marriott that bitch and moan to me every night. After talking to one of the managers of Any Occasion, I think I may keep the Friday position just 'cause I like the job. Oh, and the extra money is nice to.

Posted by Coign at 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments

Time for the Friday update.

First D61. We have not been playing lately and thus my writing and motivation for posting more information on it wanes. I plan on moving so lose some of the thrill of creating an epic campaign when I know that we have maybe 4 game sessions left before we all split up. So if D61 goes un-updated for a few weeks, or more likely it will just be really sporadic, you will have to forgive me. Once I find a new group of players hopefully that will fire up the creative juices again.

On the A1 Books fiasco, I have been meaning to file the small claims case against them because they still haven’t refunded my money but I am to lazy. With as much lack of motivation I have shown lately you would think I was smoking the ganja. But I have just had a real lack of ambition problem lately. I don't know if I can find a reason or if it is just a mindset I have gotten into. Anyways I am thinking I might download the form and fill it out this weekend and then if I haven’t gotten my money on Monday file it on Tuesday.

I finally did my taxes and that should pay off one of my 500 dollar loans from US Bank that I still have outstanding. I have decided not to attend Comicon this year and with the prepayment of my car insurance for the next 6 months and the vacation I have saved up to get an extra paycheck when I leave the Marriott (70 hours of vacation I have never taken) I think I should have enough money to squeak by and make the move to Denver. Now just to find a job there.

I have applied for a few jobs on Monster but no bites yet. In March I was just applying for things that look good. Come April I will become a lot less picky and start applying for all kinds of jobs. Of course that will move my "move" date to next month instead of the end of April but that is ok to. I just want to be moved out of Vail by August so I have plenty of time to slack off.

I have been spending more time on an IRC channel for Rant Radio. The people in the afternoon there seem pretty cool. Not sure if the same can be said for the night people. They bit my head off last time I posted there but could be a result of my opening my hello with an insult. Not always the best way to meet people. Oh well it is the Internet, people are supposed to be insulting and it is not like I hurt by it.

Posted by Coign at 2:39 PM | Permalink | Comments

Well I seem to have caught up on my sleep and am back to a normal 4 hour nap rotation. This last week has gone by fairly quickly. Couple of bad nights of guests getting all upset at their room has made me hate my job even more. I look forward to walking out the front doors for the last time.

I bought my plane ticket to go back to Minnesota for my high school reunion this June. That will be pretty cool. I am also looking at booking a hotel room to go to San Diego Comicon this year. But the Comicon hotel is going to cost me somewhere between 250 and 550 dollars just in lodging not counting travel, food, and souvenirs. I am thinking if I can get the lodging at 250 I may still go but I am having second thoughts about the trip.

First it is expensive and I am still trying to figure out how I will afford the move to Denver this summer. Second I already have my reunion trip planned so any new job I will ask for that time off. To ask for another 4 days may be too much time off in a new job to start off with. Third, it is expensive. I know I am using that reason twice but that is how much it concerns me.

Yeah I know, if it concerns me that much I shouldn't go. The Comicon will be there next year. But then you balance that out with if the expense is worth it. Not having been to one before I am not sure. I am kinda riding the fence and I know that the chance of me getting by on the 250 rate is kinda slim so I am thinking I will use that as my deciding factor. If I can split a room to get in the 250 range I will go and if I can not I will skip it.

I finished my Monster resume update this week and applied for my first two jobs in Denver. Of the two jobs I am slightly under-qualified for one and for the other I have the experience but not the certification. But because I am looking for a higher end career then the one I held back in Minnesota I am shooting higher. A lot of my first 6 months I think is going to be how well I can bullshit my way through it until I get caught up to speed in the industry again. But I look forward to the challenge. I moved my starting salary I wanted in Vail from its 32 - 35,000 range to a 40,000 range I would like to get in Denver. It is a larger area that has a wider variety of jobs and I am hoping that if I shoot for 40 I will get at least 37. With that salary I would finally be able to have my own apartment and start saving up for bigger and better things. Makes me giggly every time I think that it may not be to far in my future for a salary like that.

Now that I broke the seal on the job hunting though I need to start spreading out my search pattern. One of the things I am thinking, other than the Denver paper, is looking at the government sites in the city. I would love to net a government job. Also the utilities interest me but I am unsure where they would post their jobs. Oh well time for some research I guess.

So with all the plans and current situations going on around me right now I keep going on a roller-coaster of worries. I am excited to make more money but will I be able to afford to get out of the valley to do so? I will let you know how it turns out, so tune in next week, same bat-time, same bat-page.

Posted by Coign at 5:07 AM | Permalink | Comments

I do not know what is wrong with me. I literally have been sleeping 9 to 11+ hours a day for the last 5 days or so. Yesterday I went to sleep at 10 am in the morning and woke up at 9:30 p.m. at night. So for the last week my life has boiled down to work and sleep with occasional Diablo 2 mixed in.

So obviously nothing new has really happened recently so I will talk about future plans. Tomorrow I will be heading to Denver with some friends. Time to stock up on Red Bull straight from Taiwan. Umm good stuff.

I also still need to update my Monster resume and I am debating if I want to pick up a Denver Post for job hunting purposes. The big issue is the money it costs to move to Denver. I would not mind doing a 2 hour commute each day but my car sucks so bad I do not think it would last more than a month driving over the 10,000 foot pass twice a day. I think I will probably pick up a paper and just browse through it. If I see that job for baby oil applicator for Hawaiian Tropic models I will apply otherwise it will be mostly just informational.

Oh I did have something happen to me last week. In between sleeping and going to work some bastard of a state trooper pulled me over.

He walks up to the car, I was doing 70 in a 65 at the time of being pulled over, and asked me, "Do you know why I pulled you over?"

"No, officer."

"Your light on your license plate is out."

"Out? Is it out or just dirty?"

"No, it is definitely out."

He then asks me for license, registration, and insurance. I had those over but I had my old insurance card so did not have one that showed coverage. So I get ticketed for failure to provide proof of insurance. No big deal I will bring that in and get that cleared up. The thing that pissed me off the most is that after getting pulled over, being made late for work, and on such an idiotic reason, I looked at the plate on my car at work. It was dirty, thus dim, but clearly there. So even after I asked the cop, who would have clearly seen the light at night walking up to my car from behind, he would have seen the light and then have the ethics to lie to me about it. God I hate authority.

On this year's election is there an anarchy box I can check? I would like to vote for the repeal of government and force us to start over. With this being a political year and me reading the newspaper more I am getting more and more pissed off at how this country works.

Posted by Coign at 4:08 AM | Permalink | Comments