the pieces of my life

Break 1

Now gift wrap is moving.

• Favorite gift card at 8:17 p.m.: “A gift you can’t refuse” on The Godfather DVD set.
  
• My index finger is black and sticky from the tape.
  
• Most cliched gift card at 9:23 p.m.: “A gift you can’t refuse” on The Godfather DVD set.
  
• Someone bought 65 copies of The Cake Mix Doctor (which granted is a good book) to give as gifts.
  
• Ugly expensive shoes are indeed better than cheap cute ones.
  

Break 2

The barrage hasn’t started yet, so for now, I’m out of gift wrap and chuting on Crisplant. I think that night shift is actually easier than day. I’m more awake right now than I was at any point last year on the day shift. Two hours and fifteen more minutes tonight, and then only nine work days left. So far, cake.

Lunch break

Definitely a lot more information than last year. Here’s a sampling of what I’ve learned so far:

• A Neil Diamond concert is louder than an Oakridge Boys concert
  
• There’s such a thing as an inappropriate undergarment, but I’m not sure what that is
  
• Chiropractors are good, but they’ll want to you to keep coming back and back and back…
  
• 80% of all scalpings are fatal
  
• If a wedding ring is caught in a conveyer, it will pull the meat off your finger, but leave the bone
  
• Back braces are bad, unless you are laying sod
  

Starting work after lunch (which, again, is significantly better than last years). Somehow, still feel awake. Don’t feel like I’m getting sick, which is a DC first for me. Could actually live through this one (although not being sick means a greater risk of losing all my per diem at blackjack. I do understand about not hitting when the dealer is showing a bust card, but I never know what to do when she’s not and I’ve got something between a 12 and a 15. Must read that print out that Adam sent me).

Break 1

Feeling the need for sleep. Orientation is much more thorough this year, although it’s being held in a warm room. Head hurts a bit from either the hotel’s neon or the beers (let’s call it the neon, okay?). Night shift is definitely better from a food standpoint–there’s time to eat before the shift. Luckily, I’m sure I’ll be too tired at the end of tonight’s shift to hit the blackjack table again.