Well I am finally starting to get used to being at Western instead of Southport! I had SCOT duty for the past couple of days and I am getting the hang of things again cos I hadn't done SCOTs in 3 weeks lol. There are a couple of new things that I learned, including that any coupons need to be scanned in assist mode by the attendant. Pain in the ass, I know but since we no longer take expired coupons this is a necessity. I am really liking the people there too, especially the assistant FEM Bill, he is hilarious! The customers are very nice by us too, haven't had a mean one yet lol.

Having to card EVERYONE regardless if they are 21 or 81 is another pain, but it is the only way our store could get their liquor license becos of the proximity to the local High School :p. Luckily most customers know the drill and automatically pull out their card. It's weird carding someone old enough to be my grandma LOL.

I talked to Marygene last nite and she is really loving her new store, even with the mean customers they get over there ;). I miss her bunches and wish she was working with me! Aw hell, I wish a lot of my old Southport workmates were still working with me :(.

For the most part...life is good :).

Incase you guys haven't noticed, I've been absent from Livejournal for a bit lol. It's cos I've been spending my time on evil Facebook mwahahahaha! But most of you probably know that already since you are on there too ;).

Add me if you haven't already: http://facebook.com/CountessGregula !!! However, I will only add you if I know you or are a friend of someone I know because I am choosing to keep that part of my life friends-only.

I do have to get G. on there but he refuses cos they require a real name. Sheesh Facebook, more people know him as count_gregula than they do as Greg :p.

Well what have I been up to lately? It was So Long, Farewell. Auf Weidersehen, Goodbye to the Southport Jewel just over a week ago. I took some pix and am uploading them to FB right now so if you are on my f-list there you can see them shortly. I will be putting them on my LJ scrapbook sometime this week (yay crappy computer being slow) for the peeps on my f-list here. It was kind of a bittersweet, but exciting day. I got to the store about noonish and found out from CJ that they were clearancing ALL ice cream for $1 each! So YAY for Haagen-Dazs Five Ginger ice cream for breakfast! So I went down to eat with Marygene (who was nice enough to wait for me lol) and took a few pix and reminisced about the good ol days. I miss her, she was my partner in crime lol! Afterwards we hung around with CJ (who took our very last customer!) and Edna, said goodbye to everyone except for Fred and David (cos they work with me at Western Ave lol).

When it was all over, Marygene and I went to her new store (Addison & Broadway) to get her schedule and she took me on the tour. It is a nice store but their breakroom is so TINY, much smaller than Southport! I seen a few peeps from Southport who were already working there, then took her home and went to my new Jewel on Western Ave, got my schedule and met my new boss lady Susan who is awesome x 10 :). So now I work at Western Ave. which was the Jewel I originally applied for almost a year ago :).

More updates later on!

Happy 4th of July to all that celebrate!!!



Mine was pretty good, cept for working 9-2 today, falling asleep during The Proposal at the movies and missing the fireworks at Navy Pier tonite due to them being earlier than normal :p.

At least we got to see some awesome fireworks at the Eyes To The Skies Balloon Fest in Lisle, IL last night :).

Sheesh, I cannot believe a difference six months make! At the beginning of the year it was all about below zero temps and tons o' snow and now look - it be 95 degrees today!

I already promised myself that I wouldn't complain, especially after all the bitching I did about the weather last winter :). The sun is out, the grass is green and all is right with the world!

OMG, today will be my very last day at Southport! I am scheduled to work 10-4 and that will be it maybe foreva unless I decide to go back after the new store is built. But only if I don't like it at Western Ave. lol ;).

I'm feeling a bit anxious, not so sad anymore. But I think the anxiety will go away once I secure my schedule for next week at the new location. I really don't like the unknown and that is what I have to deal with right now, argh!

I will prolly go back on Friday to visit Marygene and CJ as well as take a few pix of the old store before it gets torn down.

Well I still don't got time for a real post but you are gonna get the Reader's Digest version of what's going on.

First of all, my work location closes Friday, OMG! I cannot believe it is finally here :O! Since the store is now closing at 10 pm instead of midnight, I have been assigned earlier hours this week so last night was my last evening shift at Southport. Today I am working 10-2 and Wednesday is 10-4, which will be my last day there. I am alternating between feeling a lil sad and getting hyperexcited for the adventure of working at a different location. Especially since said location is only three blocks from home. It will be the closest workplace I've ever had! Yay walking distance!

Last Tuesday, I had to work but Greg got to see the movie Year One at the Music Box Theatre on Southport (just half a block from work :p). Since it was the premiere, some of the actors were there (not the stars) and Harold Ramis the director was there. Yep, Harold Ramis from Ghostbusters! And I got to meet him after work cos I walked over there to pick up G. teehee!

Wednesday we went to the Lakeshore Theater, where Robert Smigel and Dino Stamapolous (sic?) were showing The Unaired Bozo's Circus Parody from TV Funhouse as part of TBS's Just For Laughs comedy festival in Chicago. It was actually loltastic, especially if you grew up with Bozo's Circus in Chicago :D. At the end, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog did some schtick and I actually got hit in the arm when he threw his cigar out into the audience. I was unable to get it but our friend Rusty Nails (from Music Box Massacre) was able to crawl under the seats to get it lol.

Thursday we went to the Public Enemies premiere at the AMC River East downtown where we got to see Johnny Depp and Christian Bale! I remember I was talking to G. and I turned around and Christian Bale was literally three feet away from me! I almost got Johnny Depp's autograph but I wasn't close enough to where he was signing :(. We went with Ron and Angie and they weren't able to get one either, but G. did get a sweet movie poster from the event so that was all good. I am gonna try and upload some of the pix tomorrow because you all need proof of our celebrity stalking ;).

OK, so this post wasn't really condensed but it was informative ;).

I'm feeling a tad annoyed tonite that I don't have time to update. Cos there has been quite the flurry of activity this past week.

Only three more sleeps til my last day at Southport.

More tomorrow morning.

Mucho Birfday Wishes to my baby brother Paul!!! Have a great day today!

OMG I can't believe he turned 26 :o!!!!!

Geez, I cannot believe it's the middle of June already!!! For a while it had been hard to tell because it was chilly and rainy up until recently. Greg mentioned to me that were having March in June, and I told him that it was OK because we had January in March. Seriously :p.

Since I posted about this past weekend in my previous entry (how timely :P), why don't I post about the weekend before?

On Thursday 6/4, count_gregula and I went to the Museum of Science & Industry. Since we arrived at 10:30 am (much earlier than usual), we were able to see some of the exhibits that we usually miss because of time limits. We got to see the Henry Crown Space Center, the Circus exhibit and the Museum Archives, where there are photos and artifacts from the earlier days of the Museum. We also checked out the Farm exhibit and Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle. But the highlight of our trip was seeing Harry Potter: The Exhibition :D. The exhibit was cool! It started out with a staff member dressed as a Hogwarts student/staff picking out volunteers to be sorted using the Sorting Hat, then took us by a wall of the paintings featured in the movie, including the Fat Lady who was very amusing in her video "painting". There was a ton of actual props from the movie as well as various outfits the stars wore in the movies. Our favorite was the recreation of Hagrid's Hut! Afterwards we checked out the Harry Potter-themed gift shop where I purchased a magnet, a postcard and a velvet glittery coloring poster. I really wanted the t-shirt but I simply cannot justify spending $25 on a shirt or $50 for a hoodie :p. Afterwards we went to Wing Stop to eat and I wish I could remember what we did afterwards but I'm sure we did something fun ;).

Friday 6/5, we had lunch at Sweet Tomatoes which is always a favorite of ours :). We decided to go see a movie and our choice for the evening was Angels & Demons, which turned out to be a very interesting thriller with some rather gruesome murder scenes. Not bloody or extremely gory but still very disturbing. We capped the night at Majestic Star Casino and only managed to lose $5 :).

Saturday 6/6, we were originally going to see Drag Me To Hell but we had missed getting there due to a late start and traffic being horrific. So we decided to see a later showing of Night At The Museum 2: Battle Of The Smithsonian instead. Greg and I really enjoyed it, especially the two monkeys who liked to slap Ben Stiller around lol. Since G. had to go to work that night, we only had time for a quickie at Pita Inn.

The rest of the weekend was spent working, big surprise.

Had a really productive weekend so far.

Thursday we went on a bus tour with a bunch of Yelpers to see various sites around the City of Chicago where Hollywood movies were filmed. It would have been a bit funner had it not rained, but we still managed to have a good time...and only paid $17 for parking at the Rock n' Roll McDonald's where the bus picked us up.

After the tour was over I took Greg to PK testing where he was supposed to start part one of a three-day taste test (which he was unable to make the last two days :(). We ate dinner at a nearby restaurant, Brandy's and went to Golf Mill to see Terminator: Salvation.

Friday, we got a late start (argh alarm!) and wasn't able to get to the Mayhem on Mansfield garage sale earlier than 2 pm. This was a huge sale with a ton of props that the owners previously used as a Halloween haunt in their neighborhood. I heard it was pretty big and scary and I am disappointed that it is no longer going to be run as of this year. Boo :(. Well we got outta there around 2:30ish and figured that an hour and a half would be sufficient to get all the way from the ass-end of the South Side to the ass-end of the Northwest Side, totaling 40 miles. But nooooo, we managed to get trapped in a horrific maze of streets and for some unholy reason traffic was backed up for miles. So in a nutshell, G. didn't make his appointment and now he won't get paid. Argh. At least he wouldn't have to take the bus on Monday.

We decided to go to Pita Inn and see the 7pm showing of Drag Me To Hell, which turned out to be a pretty awesome flick! Sure it had some gross-out moments, but it was what Greg referred to as "comedic gore" lol. After the movie was over, we decided to go to the casino because I was fairly wide awake and we ended up winning two dollars lol. This was after we nearly lost twenty, but G. got four Hermans on the Munsters slots so he ended up making his money back plus more :).

I worked Saturday, Sunday and today, that's about it for now.

EDIT: Almost forgot!!! We went to North Center's Ribfest on Sunday night after I got off work. It would have sucked more if a nice couple hadn't given us their last five food tickets that they couldn't use. So we ate a snack for free :).

I also got the world's greatest keychain from The Onion's booth. Their logo on one side and on the other "My Other Keychain Is Also A Piece Of Shit" ;).

Ok, it's now official - Southport & Addison Jewel will be closing it's doors on June 26th at 4 pm. But don't cry, it will only be temporarily closed ;). The plan is to tear down the existing building and build a brand new combo Jewel-Osco. I seen the artist rendition of what the new store looks like and it's gonna be pretty sweet...there will be two floors with liquor being on top plus underground parking...FREAKING UNDERGROUND PARKING...WOOHOO :D!!!

By now you all are anxious to find out what happens to me. You are anxious to find out...right???? Well, because the store is closing, we are all gonna be split up between several other Jewel stores. I am kinda sad over this because I will miss my friends from Southport a bunch :(. The good news is that I will be transferred to Western Ave. which is considerably closer to home...scoreeeeeeeee!!! I was a bit worried about being lonely over there but F. from the front end service desk/cashier is being transferred with me as well as D. in produce who is a really cool guy. I wish that C. was coming with us but he got transferred to a different location. I am gonna miss goofing around with him :(.

Well, we are having an employee appreciation lunch on Saturday (yay free food!) and I will find out whether or not I leave for the new store after the 15th or will be staying til the bitter end. I gotta remember to bring my camera and take some pix of the old store for my memories.

Is it weird to be both excited and happy, yet a bit sad over this???

OMG with our schedules being crazy and count_gregula's new fascination with Twitter, I haven't been online for a long ass time! So I managed to forget to wish two of my favorite peoples Happy Birthday this past week :(.

Happy Belated BDay to my middle younger brother Troy for June 6th! I hope that your birthday was happy, even tho you had some disappointments. I love you *hugs*.

Also a Very Happy Belated Birthday to the very awesome sharkbait for June 10th :). I know that you had the best bithday present of all, a visit with your man ;). I hope that your day was wonderful and you got everything you wanted. *HUGSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS*

Hi Daddy,

Happy Birthday to you today! I wish that you were here to celebrate with us...you would have been 58 today :(. But I'm sure you will have a nice day up in Heaven celebrating with Grandma Lois and Grandpa Roman, Uncle Kenny and Grandpa Odell (your birth dad).

We all love you and miss you! I wish you could have met Greg...he's very good to me and I love him :).

Love,
Your Daughter
xoxoxoxox

P.S. I feel bad that I checked the archives and never wished my Mom a happy birthday two months ago (April 2) so Happy Belated Birthday Mommy!!! I love you too!

xoxoxoxox

Why can the weather not make up it's mind??? One day it's all warm and muggy out and the next it's chilly and rainy. I just want summer to get here so I don't have to be cold anymore!!!

Gah! I ate some wings at Wingstop yesterday that had enough garlic on them to kill a vampire! But My Count and I looooove the garlic parmesan wings, they are our new crack! Maybe we can find an anti-garlic vaccine or something???

But I can still taste the garlic today! And it's giving me a tummy ache. THEY ARE WORTH IT THO.

I worked last night and I think it was random drunk weirdo night at Jewel :p. My personal favorite was the dude who tried to ask me for tips on how to purchase liquor without being carded. Truly a WTF??? moment! And a shit-ton of folks were buying booze so when I was running self-checkout I felt like a damn yo-yo lol.

But I do loves my job, it makes me feel useful :). And I'm practically in the service desk now lol becos its the SCOT attendant's duty to take care of office things like Coinstar refunds and lottery ticket winnings when there is no service desk clerk around. I'm such a big shot ;).

After I got off work, I had to take G. to work downtown. First warm weekend in ages made traffic annoying last night, but I managed to get him to work in just 15 minutes :O. I freakin amaze myself with my awesome driving skillz!

Not sure what is going on today...all depends on if the mister is willing to wake up soon. We might go to the Maifest in Lincoln Square and get a bratwurst or go to Sweet Tomatoes in Glenview for a quick lunch.