FINALLY!!!

Alright, we've moved from sucking and not making our plan AT ALL, to full on making plan and then even making "stretch goal" and then even more!!! Woo-hoo! And what do *I* get out of this to cause such excitement? Easy: I was supposed to work until 6pm today...but do you know what time they let me stay 'til? 11:40pm!! Hooray! See, I actually really enjoy working looong shifts...after a year with the Israelis, how could I go back? So, a 10 1/2 hour work day feels like a solid, well-spent day to me! (Plus, so many hrs. were cut last week, now I can actually make up for it...)

Anyways... Today was great for another reason as well--a very random one in fact! Ok, so since I was going to be staying for more than 7 hrs., I had to take a mandatory break...which I never know what to do during and rarely *want* to take (see the above paragraph about working with Israelis and how it changed me)--so I walked around the mall for a bit and then decided to get a pretzel. The girl ringing me up got all confused when trying to let me ring it as 'debit' rather than 'credit', but I told her it wasn't a big deal, just something with my bank's Points system. So she's like, "Oh, well I have National City too--what Points thing are you talking about?" Which triggered me right into automatic spokesperson-mode (as happens with so many things! I've actually gone off on this spiel before, only to have people ask me, "Oh, so do you work for National City?" and I'm like, "Oh no, I'm just really into my bank!" hahaha)! So, I told her and her co-worker all about it, how to set it up, what some of the perks are, etc., etc. and then left with my snack. As I was walking away, I caught a glimpse of this chick who looked somewhat familiar...as I passed I realized she recognized me too, so I yelled out, "Hey! I know you!!" and we both started laughing and doing the whole, "Oh my God!" thing (but sincerely..). Ok, turns out it was this girl Shannon who use to work with me waaay back in the day...the days of Vito Moots and guns...yes, of course I'm talking about here! Jk. I meant here. (And really, those two places weren't quite so different!) So, yeah, we use to work together in the Sporting Goods Dept., *now* we both work together at South Hills Village...she's working at one of those jewelry kiosks and hilariously enough is ALL ABOUT the Israeli guys at the kiosk(s) next to her! I shared with her briefly of my knowledge of this hidden subculture, and she was highly amused/fascinated. All she knew of me was that I was going off to India to "save" people...she asked me how that went...and I laughed and was like, "Oh dear, yeah, just so you know, I'm not even remotely 'religious' anymore..." and she was also highly amused/fascinated by this statement. So we talked for a bit and it turned out to be a really good conversation. I'm happy to be back in touch with her...and to have her working in the same place as me again.