I got whored out.

Not exactly...the call was put out to several foremen, asking if they could spare an apprentice to help out at the Palazzo today. Drew answered the call and sent me.

I was dispatched to Leon, a foreman under Snow. Leon put me with Shane for the day...oh, that was a trip. Shane's a very interesting individual. He's very anti-touchy, which is fine, but had no problem showing off his nipples. I couldn't help but laugh. His temper was also much fun to observe: it seemed that for the majority of our time together he was trying so hard not to freak out about, well, everything. (For instance, when he was cursing, then immediately apologising for it, when many horrible pokey things stabbed into him while we were in the very tight attic space.)

Mostly we pulled low-voltage cable for security cameras that had been forgotten, and that was fun. We ran through the rain on the Strip to Chipotle, where he bought me lunch: mmmmm, tacos. He even said something "questionable" over the radio to Leon, and that got Snow down to give us a talking-to...to which Shane replied with giving Snow a giant bear hug, and two other journeymen and I joined in that as well. It was hilarious to watch Snow look so uncomfortable.

One highlight of the day was when Shane and I ran down to P-1 to grab more cable for our pulls. Shane, being much taller than I (and addicted to energy shots), made the loops incredibly long, so much so that I was tripping over them as we went back up the stairs. He agreed to carry it up the stairs, and I could carry it across the casino. I agreed.

After Shane handed the cable to me, several tradesmen throughout the casino made shitty comments to Shane for "forcing that little girl" to carry all the heavy cable. We both thought it was funny, and he responded in kind. At one point, I succeeded in tripping over the cable loops and fell over. Shane ran over to me, quickly made sure I was okay, then pretended the beat me with his hard hat, screaming "You stupid girl! You stupid stupid girl! Bad apprentice! Bad!" I could scarcely hold back the tears, I'd not laughed so hard in months. The other tradesmen ran over to me, protectively, calling Shane names...it was great.

A remodel of our own.

We decided we're going to finally get our guest bathroom looking decent. The cabinets look awful, currently: painted almost black, several layers of it, and the previous owner had started (but never finished) to paint them white. We've put it off for over a year now, we're both sick of it. So we're going to strip the cabinets, and try to restain them a natural colour. We're putting a lot into it, we're probably going to repaint the walls as well. Our shower curtain is white with bright blue and green and yellow, so we got "Lettuce alone" green, something bright and happy. Maybe we'll put sunshine yellow towels in there, too. It'll look good.

My hope is that we'll get it done before Christmas but with all the time we're working plus school, I really don't know.

A break!

Thanksgiving was good, I barely get to see my family anymore and so it was refreshing to be around them. It was hectic though honestly, not enough time. Relaxing of course, but just the fact that we're working so many hours right now I didn’t get to unwind at all.

I got texted some photos last nite from Drew at like 22h00. Of course my crappy iPhone doesn’t allow me to view multimedia messages so I had to go to a website and download them…how lame…and they were concert pics, Rob Zombie and Ozzy Osborne. Very cool. So today I walked in and he was looking half dead and hung over, well now I know why.

Fuck, I'm exhausted.

Urgggg!

I'm working with two different JWs now: Jeff and Chris. Both organised in: Chris a year ago, and Jeff just this month. We're doing the VAVs for the Canyon Ranch Spa on the pool-deck level of the Palazzo. That's technically Gene's area, but he's overloaded so Drew is pimping us out to him. Working 12 hour days can suck but it'll help: hospital bills, Christmas, fees for upcoming exams...it's been awhile since I've relly worked time anyway.

I lost my badge this morning, totally pissed. I was sure I'd be completely screwed, and Drew (the quick thinker that he is) gave me the badge of a girl who had gotten fired months ago...looked nothing like me really but I had layered clothing and my hardhat so it worked till I got rebadged at 07h00. Venetian charged my contractor $25 for the new badge and Drew laughed and said "Uh oh, there goes payroll"...it was funny.

The Solar Initiative.

So awhile back, I wrote to Senator John Ensign, Senator Harry Reid and Representative Jon Porter on importance of passing the renewable energy bill. I got responses from all three and both Ensign's and Reid's responses were right in line with my views. Porter's wasn’t at all, and his letter was all over the place, he contradicted himself and sounded like he couldn’t form a complete idea. My dad told me a story once about written exams in college: he was handed a folder with paper inside and the essay answers were written in the folders and turned in. Porter's letter was like that…but only if missing a few pages. The ideas didn’t even connect. Doesn’t he have someone to read through that kind of thing? Or does he really vote on that kind of skewed information?

Tongue healed! Plus I'm irritated.

About the tongue...the stud abandoned the original hole and nestled into the new one so it sits differently in my mouth now, but it no longer hurts. Very happy about that. Not to say it didn't suck, because it did, but I'm glad that aspect of it is over.

Still going to school multiple nights a week for hours at a time...exhausting. We were told that in a week or two we will start working 60 hours a week on top of that, and likely no holidays off. Great for my paycheck but little else. Maybe I can get those hospital bills paid off?

There's an apprentice at work who really gets to me. He's endlessly cocky, and I swear he's on amphetamines, he just bounces and makes random noises all the time, and gives me shit if I'm not sure how to do something, or if my beliefs aren't the same as his... et cetera. For instance, I told him I wasn't really into holidays and he asked what about Christmas and Easter and I kinda shrugged and he gave me this speech about how if I don't respect my Saviour then I'll be hellbound and he went on and on and I
just wanted to tell him that I was a heathen lesbian just so he'd be disgusted and shut up...luckily I don't have to work closely with him on a daily basis. I wish I could tell him that he's the reason that non-Christians think Christianity is a joke. But I don't think he'd believe me.

An odd debate.

There's a debate at school that spilled out to work, and even my family has different views.

Moët & Chandon Champagne...Supposedly it's pronounced:
Moette
Moé
Moè

or....It's one of the last two except when with the "...et Chandon", then it's pronounced the first way, with the T because of the vowel E of "et" coming after.

But then.....Someone mentioned that in Northern and Central France, the T is dropped but in the South it's pronounced.

And finally, a website's view:

"If it been spelt Moet the pronunciation would have been mo-eh, with two distinct syllables and if followed by a vowel you can pronounce the ending T. The diaresis, or umlaut, however, is there to signify that all letters are to be pronounced just as if it
had been a feminine word, in which case it would have been spelt Moette. The same thing goes with the car Citroën. Had it been Citroen it would have ended with a nasal sound, but not now."

So....which is it?

OWY!!

I was in the attic today and was marking some holes to cut into a junction box. First we cut into the ceiling and as I was in the attic, John held the box up over the holes, so that I could transfer the marks properly. Well in my zeal for making circles in pencil, my arm got caught on a torn metal stud. It pinched a little, I didn't even notice it was cut. But when I saw blood pooling onto the drywall, I crawled out to get a bandage out of the gangbox.

When i tried to stop bleeding the wound kept opening back up and leaking, so I went to the first aid trailer to see if they would have better luck...especially since I couldn't remember when I'd last gotten my tetanus shot. Once I got there, they called the safety coordinator for my contractor and I had to go to the off-site clinic. It was pretty lame, I didn't think I needed to go, but I can't really say no, either.

I wound up getting 6 stitches. :( The doc was a little weird, and he got a little crazy with the sutures (he made like 10 knots in each one). But the good thing is, the doc saw my scars and said most docs can easily tell if a cut is self-inflicted or not and he knew this one wasn't. So I won't be under suspicion, that's good. But it still hurts, and I have class tonight. Sadness.

Owy...

Somehow my tonguestud ripped loose a little. I mean, the hole in my tongue is larger, I must have caught it on something and just pulled it forward. I can tell because, aside form the intense pain, the slave ring on my barbell rests differently on the rood of my mouth. I tried using the gly-oxide, so infection won't result, but that's just as painful. Talking, swallowing, just keeping my mouth closed is painful. Is it more painful than when Gwynne dared me to lick a 9 volt battery? YES. I'm going to blame this on that incident anyway. Just because I can. So there.