***Attention JC Penny's shoppers. Please control your children, or I'll eat them.***

2002-12-24 / 9:55 p.m.

Okay, I finally got a new cord for the computer, so I can start writing again.

But first things first. We got another cat last Friday--my mother must be crazy. While working at Good Mews, my mom beacame infatuated with this super insane affectionate kitten---the rest is history. I liken the situation to one of those crazy women who has a second child late in life as sort of a mid-life crisis things. ::Sigh:: my mother is on a steady downward path of being a crazy cat lady. A couple more years without a boyfriend, and I worry she'll beging to substiture cat contact for human contact. So this kitten is insanely sweet; it's probably the most affectionate animal I've ever encountered--too affectionate in fact. She has a bad habit of nursing on people--we're working hard to break it, but it's slow going. she's sucking my left hand as I type. : / But Alice, the cat, is adorable and I love her--unsightly sucking habits and all. It's wonderful to have the pitter patter of little feet around the house again. I love kittens (I think there are few who can say they don't). I find watching cats play is one of life's unadulterated joys. Kitten and Lucy have yet to be introduced. The ASPCA website recommends that you keep the new cat isolated from the old for awhile, so Alice is lodging in my mother's bedroom for the next couple of weeks. She and Lucy have seen and heard each other, and there doesn't seem to be too many problems as of yet. Lucy has actually become more affectionate. But yea, we have another cat and I'm sure you'll be hearing all about her whether you like it or not :) She's now wrestling with a toy mouse ::swoon:: so cute.

And hey! Merry Christmas, amigos!!! I'm so sorry I didn't get Christmas cards mailed out yet, but I've been working a lot. :(. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday. I personally have been working hard to keep some Christmas cheer around this house. I find that working in a shopping mall at Christmas time is a soul-sucking miserable experience that makes one a little bit jaded about the holidays. It's hard to explain why...there's a lot of reasons. There was this one woman, I was folding near the register when she came up with a return. The cashier asked her why she was returning the item, and the woman cutly answered that it was a present she bought for someone, but she was no longer on speaking terms with them, and wanted to return their gift. ::sigh:: With my mother and I both facing the daily grind at Penny's, it's hard....but we're rather cheery. We played our traditional Christmas eve boardgame (trivial persuit--I lost) and had our traditional Christmas Eve snack-y dinner (portabella turnovers, sausage balls, spinach dip, cheese, and mimosas). So that's about it. I'm watching "It's a Wonderful Life" which still, after about 10 years of watching it, can still make me almost cry. I wish you all a very merry Christmas, as I sit here with a small kitten (who happens to have some unpleasant gas presently) licking my hand.

I'm working at Penny's. It kinda' sucks, but I'm not complaing so much--they're paying me $7.70 an hour for very low stress work. I'm not crazy about the people though, they're evil--customers and employees. So, uh, I fold clothes and straighten things. That's it. People ask me questions sometimes, but I usually don't answer them correctly or at all. Where's the bathroom, you ask? I don't know. Do we have a 2XL in this? uhhh...I'm not sure. Where's the mall exit? I don't give a rat's ass. Lately, they've stationed me in the men's department, which is staggeringly messy. Unfolding things is one thing, but what possesses people to just throw things on the ground? What's more, to throw them on the ground halfway across the store? That's just so rude.

Because of the location of Cumberland mall, there are a lot of spanish speaking shoppers. It's given me a great chance to eavesdrop on spanish dialouge. I heard a lot of cursing, and discussion of Levis, but nothing that interesting. One guy, while talking to his friend, made a rude comment on the size of my ass while I bent over to pick up some blue jeans. While I was not pleased at the commentary on the large size of my butt, I was pleased that I understood them.

The children, as expected, are evil. One little rugrat pulled my hair while I was cleaning up the remnants of a Dora the explorer playset. No worries though, my patented evil look still scares the children away just as well as it always has. ::sigh:: Alas, I'll write more later, but I'm going to play with the neglected cat. Just know that I'm still alive.