Killing time, minute by gory minute

If robots ever took over the planet and enslaved the human race, I would be S.O.L.; it seems that all computer chips come preprogrammed to destroy me. After my problems with Blogger, I started writing my posts in Word (thanks JB). No sooner do I get several posts going, almost ready to publish, than the laptop that I've owned for a whopping six weeks starts to eat itself, lodging vital parts of its CD drive in its innards.

I brought the beast into CompUSA where the endearing nerdy tech dude confirmed that, yes, there is in fact something lodged in my disc drive, preventing the computer from reading CDs. As I'm filling out the paperwork to send one of my biggest investments off to HP for the next two weeks, sweet geek asks me if I want them to save anything on my hard drive.

I look up quizzicallly. "Uhhhh...yeah. How 'bout everything?"

The woman behind me in the line for tech support (who, I might add, was holding the same Compaq Presario that I have) snickers.

Funny thing: one has to pay to get the contents of her hard drive saved by the techies. I would have done it myself before bringing it in, but, gee, I can't read or write CDs; hence, I'm here, CompUSA dudes. Don't you get it? Gawd.

Tech man assures me that the likelihood that HP would reformat my hard drive is slim since I have a mechanical problem. Due to my utter lack of cash, I took the chance. Despite his assurances, though, I still have a feeling that HP will erase my six weeks of blood, sweat, and tears just because a computer chip inside tells them it's the right thing to do to me. (I lied about the blood and tears part; it's all just sweat in that computer. My a/c is broken again. Be glad you can't smell me; the Adidas Deo deodorant is no match for the 90 degree heat in my apartment day and night).

Yes, I know my problems are huge in the big picture. Nothing has been going on. So many days, I've stared out my car window at a stoplight and said, "Man, I hope some narrative-ready event happens today." Really. I've been bored.

If you ever want to take a vacation in Florida, come in September; you'll be the only one here. On a recent Saturday night at my favorite beach bar, only a handful of other customers were on hand to watch me gawk at Bald Bartender and Bald Musician. I normally have to flash some cleavage or sleep with a bartender just to get a seat there. (Please know that I'm kidding) (somewhat).

Work is even more pathetic. Last Tuesday we made a staggering $1.06 for the whole day -- 6 cents of which is sales tax; thank goodness for the cheap plastic crap in the gift store, or it would have been a $0 day. It is extremely difficult to get motivated about your job when your business doesn't make enough money in one week to power the place for one day. But we're a non-profit and we make up for it in season.

Plus, we've always had a late-October $100,000 fundraiser to save us. However, 2004 was the 24th and final year of this fundraiser, so we have no windfall coming to us this year. Shockingly, the Board of Directors made no back-up plan. You can say I'm a little concerned about job security right now, what with such a gaping hold in the budget and no one walking through the door. The community would never let us close our doors, but still, I'm somewhat worried.

Oy. I need to find something outside of work to occupy my time. I've looked into classes from Parks & Rec and the various arts centers, but everything is geared toward retirees or rich people who apparently don't need to work, because all of the classes are during the day on weekdays. While I would love to blow off work for a glass-blowing class, I'm not sure that my boss would be behind me on that one. May not stop me from trying, though.