(no subject)
Parks and Recreation
This episode was so enjoyable!!!! I mean, I just end up repeating myself when it comes to this show, but seriously, every episode this season so far has just been really strong overall!!!
Leslie's political storyline worked better for me than I think most of her political storylines have worked for me so far this season (not that I've hated them, but I've had minor problems with each one), and it's always fun to see the return of Marsha (although I thought having her married to a closeted gay guy was a little… idk, cliche/stereotypical/obvious? Something about that didn't totally work for me, and I can't quite put my finger on it), and I was definitely behind Leslie's cause, so that was awesome. And yay for having Ann back!!! I still want more for her than just having storylines about dudes, but it was nice to see the show addressing Ann losing herself in relationships, and hopefully we can stop with that from here on out now that she's noticed that? And I did absolutely adore that exchange between her and Leslie when she's telling Leslie that she's… not being herself or whatever, and Leslie's like "Do we really want to go there?" and the camera pans out so you can see Ann's cowboy outfit and Ann's clueless and is like "Are we leaving?" and I died. So yeah, I really loved the focus on Leslie/Ann's friendship this week.
The Tom/Ron storyline was probably my favorite of the episode, though! I'm pretty sure most of us could overidentify with Tom about his difficulties going on without computers/phones/etc. But it was so brilliant to pair him with Ron for that storyline, who really couldn't care less about technology and would be happy to retreat into his cabin in the woods with no contact with anyone else forever. Plus, they don't often have storylines just the two of them, so it was so nice for them to get a storyline together. This show is so excellent with like… changing up the combinations of characters who interact and have stories together so things don't start feeling stale, you know? Also, Tom's "You don't deserve the internet, Jerry!" after Jerry tells Altavista to go to yahoo please had me absolutely rolling. And Tom's iPhone he made out of paper/cardboard!!!!! ugh I enjoyed that storyline way too much.
Ben and April's storyline wasn't much of a storyline, just them reacting to the Congressman, but they are such great actors and have such great chemistry that it was still highly enjoyable to watch them just be perplexed by this guy. But my favorite part of that was actually at the end, with Leslie and Ben's conversation, where like… they didn't explicitly compare Ben's experience with the Congressman to Leslie's fight against abstinence-only education, but I thought it was such a wonderful parallel to have Ben go through that where the Congressman has no ideas of his own or passion or anything and is pretty much just a puppet, and then have him talk to Leslie about what she was doing and have him tell her… whatever it was exactly he said about it being great how passionate she was about that issue. I could just feel like… idk, foreshadowing's not exactly the right word, but I can totally see a future where Ben and Leslie are working together in Washington towards the same goals and on the same issues, and ugh idk it was just perfect and I loved it.
So yes, this show continues to be the best, even though it's already in its 5th season, and I think next week is the Halloween episode, right? Which ughhh give me now!!!!!
Elementary
I don't have a lot to say about this episode specifically, but I did want to talk a little about the show because I think this episode was the best yet, and I'm just really loving this show!!! I really don't care about the procedural stuff since I can watch about 100 other shows if all I care about is procedural stuff (although I do think this was the best story of the week yet, and I can definitely see a future episode theoretical seasons down the line where the kid comes back as a foe for Sherlock), but just… Sherlock and Joan and their relationship is the actual greatest!!!!!!! I continue not to be sure if I want them to make out or just stay platonic, but man, this episode really wasn't helping me stay on the platonic side. SHE ALREADY KNOWS HE FAVORS HER!!!!!!! AND HOW HE WAS WATCHING HER DO THE SQUATS AND THEN JUST JOINED IN, RIGHT IN RHYTHM!!!!!! AND HOW HE THANKED HER FOR HER HELP AND TOLD HER HE ACTUALLY LISTENED TO HER, AND HE MAY ACTUALLY LISTEN TO HER AGAIN IN THE FUTURE!!!!! UGHHHH THESE TWO. They aren't even like overtly shippy moments, but just like… little hints into them caring for each other more than they may pretend a lot of the time makes my heart all clenchy, idk. I am fine with them staying platonic, though. I will take any and all interaction between them!!! But anyways, I'm just so glad that this show is actually enjoyable to me, since I was really hoping it would be after the ridiculous backlash to it from Sherlock fans back when it was first announced, and while I was primed to be rooting for it from the start, I was afraid it wouldn't actually be any good. But I just really love it!!!!! So yay!!!!
I haven't even watched last week's Downton Abbey, but I still feel the need to comment on something after finding out what happened:
Downton Abbey
Man, they killed off Sybil???? I might have to actually quit this show. I mean, I've gotten my happy ending between Mary and Matthew, and everything since they've gotten married between them has not been nearly as enjoyable for me since they've made Matthew be kind of a jackass this season. And like… I don't even care that much about Sybil!!! I liked her in season 1, and then I kind of didn't really care about her in season 2 because I didn't care for Branson and didn't really enjoy their storyline. But they killed her off after she gives birth, BUT SOMEHOW BRANSON STILL GETS TO LIVE??? AND BATES IS ALSO STILL ALIVE???? I realize these events would not be connected, but I mean, really, if you have a list of people you could kill off to cause shock and drama, WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO KILL OFF SYBIL WHEN YOU COULD KILL OFF BRANSON OR BATES AND MAKE ME SO MUCH HAPPIER AS A RESULT????? sighhhhhh. I just… yeah, the decision to kill her off really bugs me. She was barely even on the show anymore!!!! It just feels unnecessary. And I'm sure if I keep watching, they'll continue to do terrible things to Mary and Matthew as well. So idk, might have to be done with the show. Or at least wait until after the Christmas episode and spoil myself to see if I can sit through all the remaining episodes or if I should really be done for good.
I also watched two movies yesterday!
Attack the Block (2011)
I liked this, but I didn't love it, and I kind of wanted to love it??? Moses was a great character, and I did have a lot of unexpected feels at the end when everyone was shouting his name, and he started smiling. There was some interesting social commentary, but I think I also ended up being a little confused by some of the message by the end? And I wish we had gotten to know some of the other characters in the gang better. Overall, I did like it, and I can't even entirely put my finger on my exact issues, but there was something that prevented me from completely connecting or getting invested in the movie.
Anastasia (1997)
I know, how am I just seeing this for the first time now? I have no answer! I was totally the right age for it when it came out, and I watched pretty much every other Disney movie that came out around that time. But anyways, I kept seeing gifs and picspams on Tumblr about how the ship in this movie was a formative influence, and the ship definitely looked relevant to my interests, so I decided I needed to finally watch it. And I really loved it!!! I mean, there were some problems, like the villain of the movie, who was largely forgettable and just kind of random and weird, and every time they cut back to him, I'd be like, "What? Oh, right, he's a character that exists and is doing stuff," because I'd get so into everything with Anya/Dmitri. tbh they could have just cut his plot entirely and focused just on the storyline with Dmitri trying to turn Anya into Anastasia and then finding out she really is Anastasia. The only real purpose to Rasputin was setting the plot into motion at the very beginning for Anya to be taken away from her family and not know who she is, and then the conflict at the end, but I feel like he wasn't so integral that they couldn't have found other ways to set the story into motion at the beginning, and they could have figured out another way to set up some last conflict at the end. Plus, the fruit bat was just… kind of annoying? So I didn't enjoy that.
But anyways, that being said, everything else was wonderful!!! ANYA/DMITRI GAVE ME SUCH HEART-CLENCHY FEELINGS THAT I DID NOT EXPECT!!!!! Like, I did expect to like them, but I was kind of afraid that watching it for the first time when I'm 23 instead of when I was like 8, but they were just delightful to me!!!!! They hit so many tropes I am into, and idk, they were just wonderful. And I was a little worried at the end that they were going to just have her hanging from whatever and him come and rescue her, and while he did help her up, it was more of a parallel to when she helped him earlier on the train, and then they let her actually jump on Rasputin to get the thing and crush it herself!!!!! So that was A+++++. And yeah, idk, Anya/Dmitri just gave me all the feelings. HIS FACE WHEN SHE MENTIONS THE BOY THAT HELPED HER AND HE REALIZES SHE'S ACTUALLY ANASTASIA!!!!!!!! BOTH THEIR FACES WHEN THEY'RE HOPING THE OTHER IS GOING TO TELL THEM THEY LOVE THEM BUT THEN THEY DON'T!!!!!!! JUST EVERYTHING ABOUT THEM UGHHHH THEY WERE SO GREAT. So yeah, I don't know why I didn't see this sooner, but I'm glad I finally got around to it!!!!
Work/real life stuff has been a little crazy recently. Usually things get really crazy and I tend to have to work overtime at the end of the month, around the 21st or so through like the 27th, depending on how the dates fall, and some months it really doesn't get too bad, just a day or two that's crazy, and other times I've had to work at least 1.5 hours overtime every day for like a week. But man, this month end is going to be awful, because it started getting crazy busy last Tuesday, and it hasn't let up. I definitely fear for my sanity this coming week. And we have a client who is staying much longer hours, so we have to stay much longer hours, which means my work schedule has been all weird. Normally we alternate working 1-2 Saturdays a month from 7 AM to 11 AM (since they really need only 2-3 of us to cover the work on Saturdays since there usually isn't very much of it). I had to work last week and I was originally supposed to also work yesterday from 7-11 AM (which would've been the worst, 2 Saturdays of waking up at 6 AM in a row is not something I can handle), but then because the client wanted people to stay later, they had us come in shifts, so I actually got to work from 11 AM to 2 PM, which was MUCH better since obviously I got to sleep in, and plus it was only 3 hours instead of the normal 4. My schedule this week is also going to be weird. Monday and Tuesday I'm working an hour extra until 7 PM, and then Wednesday and Thursday I'm working from 12:30 to 9 PM, which… I'm actually kind of looking forward to? I mean, getting done at 9 PM will suck, but it's nice for things to change up a little, and obviously the sleeping in is A++++ for me (I am so not even close to being a morning person). And then who knows on Friday, I'm supposed to come in at the normal time, but I may or may not have to work overtime, it just depends on how busy we are. But yeah, I have no idea how frequently I'm going to be around this week (not that I've been really great about being present around here, but still) because I don't know how I'm going to adjust to this kind of schedule, so we'll see! At least things should go back to normal the next week.
Although my schedule might actually be changing for good soon-ish? My boss mentioned back in September that I could shift my hours if I wanted from 9-6 to 8-5, and my automatic response was no because, as I said, I'm not a morning person (although I told her that I was worried about traffic from the high school that's right on the way to work, since they start around 7:30 AM). But then my supervisor actually shifted up her own hours from 10-7 to 7:30-4:30, and like… she leaves so early!!!!! I get jealous!!!! Plus, her moving her hours up means that the only people who work until 6 with me are the new girl and the coworker who had been annoying me (who is back to annoying me, which I'll get to), and like… I do like the new girl a lot, actually, but I don't know her or the other lady as well as I do my supervisor or a lot of people I work with, and the other person who used to stay until 6 with me no longer works here, so it's just… not as fun, and a lot more boring. So I was considering telling my boss I changed my mind and I wanted to move my hours up, but then what with my supervisor moving her hours up… if I also moved mine up, then we would only have the 2 newest people working the last hour until 6 PM, which probably isn't the greatest idea, so I figured that probably was no longer a possibility. But I kind of mentioned it to my supervisor in passing that I was still interested in it a few weeks ago even though I didn't think it would be possible, and then last week she brought it up again to me, if I was still interested in it, and I said yes, and she said that they still needed to train the new people more, but that once they were trained more, I could move my hours up. So yay! I have no idea when that'll happen, but I think it'll be good when it does. I mean, since we moved offices back in July, I'm a lot closer to work, so I actually have a lot more time than I need in the mornings before I go to work, and I end up spending like 30-40 min just on Tumblr and other various places on the internet entertaining myself. Which means I really only need to get up a half hour earlier to get to work on time if I moved my hours up, which wouldn't be too bad. And I should miss most of the high school traffic since they start at 7:30 and I'd be going by closer to 7:45, and I end up running into a lot of college traffic (as the college is actually just across the street from the high school I pass on my way to work) when I'm going to work at 9 AM anyways, so it shouldn't really be an issue.
In terms of other work stuff, the lady who had been really annoying and then got better after my supervisor and my boss talked to her has gone back to being kind of annoying. It's definitely not as bad as it was, but she's gone back to like… if we have someone back-out of a signing, she'll be like, "Oh no guys, this isn't going to be good, we have a problem, this is going to be difficult," over and over to everyone, and it's like… yeah, back-outs really suck, but they do happen. When we get the busiest at the end of the month, we can have like 5-6 in a day because notaries get so busy that they overbook and having docs late for just one signing will throw everything off. It happens, and it can be tough, but the way to handle it is not to announce it to everyone and make it everyone else's problem because then everyone is working on one thing when we have 20 other things that need working on. And she should know this by now, she's been here for like 2 months almost. And it's not even like she's asking a direct question to someone, she's just announcing to everyone, "This is going to be a problem!!!!!!" like… we're expected to take care of it or offer some magical solution??? If she came up to me and was like, "Hey, I have this back-out, but I also have 5 other things I'm working on and I don't know how to proceed on the back out, please help!" then I wouldn't be as bothered, you know? And like… I feel bad because I don't want to seem like I have it out for her, because really, I have no problem with her personally, like I've chatted with her before and she's very nice and friendly, and I didn't have a problem with her at all for a little while after my boss and supervisor had spoken to her about the various issues that had come up. The good thing this time is that my supervisor has noticed it on her own without anyone else having to point it out! I mean, I felt like after last time I should tell my supervisor if I am coming across the same issues with her again, but… again, I don't want it to seem like I have it out for her, and the issues really were more minor than last time, and I knew she'd ask for specific instances so she could address them with her and I really couldn't think of any specific cases, and it's just been so crazy and I've been handling so many things that I didn't really have time.
I mean part of the issue with it being so crazy, too, (and this is a bit of a digression, but whatever) is that like… in terms of hierarchy in the office, there's the CEO who's in and out and not involved in the day to day stuff, the VP (who I just refer to as my boss because that's basically what she is) who is somewhat involved in the day to day stuff but has her own office and her own issues that we don't really deal with, and my supervisor, whose desk is with the rest of ours and oversees the stuff we do, and then there's the rest of us who are all on the same level. But like… my supervisor really trusts me with a lot of responsibility, and because of certain responsibilities I have that no one else has, I know how to handle a lot of issues that basically no one else does outside of my supervisor. So if she's in a meeting with our boss or whatever, people usually come to me with questions, and she's specifically told the annoying new-ish lady and the other new girl who started 2 weeks ago that if she's not around and they have any questions to go to me. Which like… that's awesome that she trusts me with that responsibility, and like… I've never really thought of myself as someone who's great at leadership or being in a managerial type position or anything, so this job has actually been really great for my self-confidence in that area. But it does make it really hard when it gets so crazy and I have like 3 people asking me to help them with their issues and questions and I have my own issues that I'm behind on because it's crazy busy.
But anyways, back to what I was talking about before, which is that I was thinking I should probably mention to my supervisor that I was noticing some of the same issues with her (and my coworker that I had been complaining with before about her also mentioned one or two things to me, so I knew it wasn't just me), but I didn't get around to it. But she IMed me on Friday and was like, "Is it just me, or is [New-ish Annoying Coworker] not listening to what I told her about [specific issue]?" and I replied that I had kind of noticed that, too, and it had seemed like she was kind of running into those issues again since it had gotten so busy and crazy, like she was so overwhelmed with everything that she was reverting back to her old habits and not thinking before she spoke to everyone about all the problems she was dealing with. But that was it, and I wasn't sure if it was something that she was planning on addressing with her or whatever. But then on Saturday, my supervisor was working 7-11 AM along with the New-ish Annoying Coworker, so the New-ish Annoying Coworker left when I came in, but my supervisor stuck around a little because she had a few things she was dealing with. And so after she left, my supervisor was like, "I was getting really irritated with [New-ish Annoying Coworker]," and then she proceeded to talk about the same things I had been noticing, and how she acts kind of like she expects everyone else to fix her problems, and I told her I had noticed the same things. So it sounds like she's going to talk to our boss and maybe have another meeting with her? But it's also not like we really have time for serious meetings right now since it's so busy! So idk. But I'm just glad that I don't feel like I'm being unreasonable about her and that my supervisor is noticing it for herself now, too.
Also, my supervisor told me last week that she might be looking for a new job, which would SUCK, ughhhh. My favorite person there quit back in August, and my supervisor was my 2nd favorite person, so her leaving too would be the worst. I mean, there are a lot of people there I really like, but she's definitely who I feel closest to, and I just go to her with so much that it would make my job so much more difficult if she left. I can understand why she'd want to leave, but ughhhh, it would suck.
Apart from that stuff… idk, things are fine, I guess? The new girl who started 2 weeks ago has been really great so far, so I'm hoping she sticks around, and we are actually going to be getting another new girl soon. Possibly even this week, although I don't know how that's going to work with how busy we're going to be; it seems kind of impossible to train someone in that kind of environment. I also officially have my first appointment set up with that career counselor, but it's not until the first week of November since he doesn't have Saturday appointments, and his latest one is at 7 PM, and he's in San Juan Capistrano, which will take me like 45 min from my office, so obviously that wouldn't work this week with the overtime I'm going to be doing and my weird schedule. But I'm really hoping it helps me figure things out, because even though as far as office jobs go, mine is probably one of the better ones, I still really don't want to be doing this for that much longer. I've even been considering like… even if I don't end up going to grad school next fall (which seems increasingly unlikely considering it's October and I still don't even know what field I want to pursue), I might try getting like an internship or a job that would be closer to what I want to get into at that point, and then I could be doing that while working on applying to grad schools for fall of 2014. When I will be 25. Which doesn't seem real to me. But idk, I also remember how much anxiety and stress searching for a job caused me before I got this one, and I seriously half-assed that job search (seriously, I am insanely lucky to have like fallen into this job, I still kind of question how that happened sometimes?). So we'll see. I'm going to try to take it one step at a time and not panic too much, since unfortunately I'm really good at panicking and stressing.