Joey...Use Me

I feel like this week has been really long and winding. Maybe that’s because of Friday’s contents, but who can never be sure? It’s just been a loooong week, and I’m super glad it’s coming to a close. I was going to have a song in the blog this week, but so many have been swirling in my head throughout the week, so I’m just going to list them here. 

• Tempo by Lizzo
• I’m So Tired by Lauv & Troye Sivan
• Just Thought You Should Know by Betty Who

Tempo started at the beginning of the week, but Missy Elliott’s verse (even though I love her) ruins it for me. Then I heard the acoustic version of I’m So Tired and I sort of fell in love with it. I even made up my own lyrics to Troye’s verse because I didn’t know the lyrics when I was singing it in the shower 😂 and then Just Thought You Should Know was stuck in my head yesterday. And then I woke up this morning, Saturday, with Tattooed Heart by Ariana Grande stick in my head. I blame the drive to the apartments for that one because I was belting this shit out of it that day. But I digress.

Sunday I applied for this open position at Frito Lay. It was for a full-time merchandiser, and it was making the same amount of money that I’m making now. But ultimately, it didn’t work out. After scheduling and rescheduling times for me to come in for an interview, Friday during lunch was the only time either of us had to do it, so I went. But I was super upfront about what I was looking for (i.e, not weekends and during the day) and that wasn’t aligning with what they needed, so we ended up not going through with the interview process, which is all for the best I believe. I’m not really sure that there’s anything I can find out there that’s Monday - Friday, and has the hours that I want. I think where I’m at now is the closest I can get. And while that sort of sucks as far as I’m not really in a field that furthers what I want to do with my life, I’ve just sort of come to terms with that fact that I’m just going to be here until I can make my dreams happen. Granted, my job is super stressful at times and sometimes it’s so mundane that I don’t know what to do with myself, but it pays the bills. It pays for my car. It keeps me with a steady chunk of change that most don’t get to appreciate, so I’ll appreciate it as much as I can.

The work week hasn’t been too bad, I don’t guess. There’s been some super frustrating days. This whole locker situation with the equipment is still really annoying and is still really wasting time, but no one seems too worried about it, so I’m rolling with it. Monday after work, Allen and I went walking at a park / trail, and even though it was raining, it was really nice to go and do. Although the best day this week, shocker, was probably my day off. 

I was able to get a whopping eight and a half pages written, so that’s awesome. I had some Queer Eye playing in the background, the sun was shinning, and I was super productive. It was an all around wonderful day off. I felt really good, being able to get that much done. And then I wrote two more pages while on lunch Thursday, so that’s been probably the best thing about this week. I’ve been doing more drowning myself in Fire Emblem Heroes lately. Maybe that’s how I’ll get the rest of this work day to get going, I’m ready to be off. Anyway, it’s been a nice distraction. Fire Emblem always is, and I’ve even been wanting to do some drawing inspired by it lately. Did I mention that I came up with a new story inspired by Fire Emblem? I’m not sure if I did or not, but yeah, that’s been a fun way to get through the work days lately. I’m really enjoying that aspect of earlier this week, I think that’s when I started plotting it out and writing stuff down about it. It actually sort of helped me harness all my energy Wednesday into writing Book Two of my current series.

Thursday we had plans to go see these apartments, 11 North, and they turned out to not be a good fit. Nothing included is basically why, and we were already looking at about a thousand for that place without having to pay every utility. Richmond is just really expensive. On to the next, I guess. I’m just hoping we can find a place relatively soon. I think both of us are just ready for our own space. 

This blog ended up being shorter than I thought? After work, I think we’re going to a restaurant over in Cary Town and then over to Chelsea’s? Hanging out with Chelsea was going to be on Sunday but it looks like it got moved to today. Which is good in retrospect. At least hopefully I can sleep in and actually sleep well tonight. 

The wonderful title of this blog comes from an episode of Queer Eye that Allen and I have been quoting non-stop lately. And we even made a gif from it, and the Queer Eye’s Twitter posted the same video I did like hours later. Thieves, but okay.

Until next time,

— Justin

And I’m Drew Barrymore

Yet another week of no song in the blog. I just haven’t found my groove in music again. Hopefully that’ll change soon though, since both Billie Eilish and Lana Del Rey have albums dropping this coming Friday. Speaking of celebrities, the title of this blog is a mess haha. I don’t really even know why it’s been a thing, but we were sitting down and watching the latest season of Queer Eye, and I think Johnathan mentioned Drew Barrymore, and I ended up doing a really piss poor imitation of her, and it’s just been a low-key thing this week? We’re a lot, but we’re a lot of fun haha.

Work has been trying my nerves this past week. Firstly, they’ve started this new thing where only assistant managers can access the devices we use to do our jobs, and we have to wait for them to unlock them and hand them out, like we’re children, which is even more annoying once you factor in that we have Manager in our job title as well. It’s just super annoying and frustrating because not only is it condescending (because they’re blaming department managers for the lack of equipment) but it’s also a colossal waste of time, something that they literally harp on us all the time about. Add the fact that Saturday, I found out yet another person was scheduled a weekend off, after I bitched to my manager about how I haven’t had a schedule weekend off since moving to Richmond, I was pissed. I’m so tired of working weekends. And it’s not that fact that I’m just working weekends, or the fact that I’m SUPPOSED to only work one a month, it’s mainly the fact that if you were every weekend, you’re supposed to make a certain amount, as in more than I do, so either give me my weekends off, or bump my pay by $1.50 because you know what I’ve had? It. I’m clearly over it, can’t you tell?

The rest of the week has been pretty good. Tuesday we were going to go to this apartment to check it out, but they ALSO have an income restriction that we somehow surpass, so they’re a no go. We still have two more that we’re trying to check out, it’s just finding the time to schedule it. Hopefully by next week, we can see another. I didn’t get nearly enough writing done on my day off. Actually, all I really did was flesh out the timeline of the next few chapters, which in truth really needed to be done, but I felt a little bummed about it afterward about not actually writing. I’m hoping to change that with this next upcoming day off though. Oh, I also finished Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom on my day off. Not nearly as good as the first one, but it was okay. I like the way the set up the next movie, so I think, and I’m hoping, that that one will be better, but who the hell knows. I’m just a sucker for Bryce Dallas Howard. I also did get to play some Sims on Wednesday like I was wanting to. My main Sim, Greyson, and his husband, Darios, now have a child named Gunnthra, and a toddler named Hríd, both named after Fire Emblem Heroes characters. Can you tell I’m still obsessed?

Speaking of, this week I also came up with a new book idea, inspired by my still reigning obsession with Fire Emblem, and that seems pretty promising. I’m liking the direction it’s going. Also this past week, I ended up finishing Fire Emblem Heroes’ storyline, or at least all that’s out at the moment, so I’ve resorted to replaying the game on a higher difficulty, because honestly I’ve never been so invested or into a mobile game before. But that’s what happens when you become obsessed with Fire Emblem I guess. Just girly things™️.

What else has happened this week? I bought two new shirts from work, because the brand George has been killing it lately and I just am loving their new designs. I started watching Joseph Birdsong’s old playthrough of Alien Isolation on a whim, so that’s been entertaining while I’ve been at work on lunch and stuff. I guess that’s really about it, except for all the shenanigans that happened Saturday.

We had a bunch of friends over for a sort of potluck, and it was a lot of fun. Allen and I made a make your own pasta kind of thing with alfredo and marinara and then everyone brought some type of side dish or dessert. And after we ate and drank some wine, we all played a game that Lorin brought called Last Word that was hilariously fun. To some it up, “things about cats: cats” 😂. But then, after going about five or six some years, I actually got sick from the wine. Which is really weird because it’s not even that I drank a lot. I think the mixing is what did it, but that happened. Yay. 

I’m just hoping this upcoming week is pretty lax because I need it Lord. 

Until next time,

— Justin

Joy, I’ve Been Nice To You, But I Am Coming To The Edge

Hola! Would you look at that, it’s the first time there hasn’t been a song in the NP for a while now, but there just hasn’t been one song that’s sort of stuck out to me a whole lot. Sure, there were a couple days that Take Me Or Leave Me were stuck in my head, but not enough in my opinion to garner the status of NP. And the title of this blog is still making me laugh 😂😂. It’s from this kid that was on an episode of Wife Swap, and he is literally a catchphrase king. And we’ve been saying them a lot the back half of this week. Such phrases include:

• Bacon is good for me!
• She’s acting like she’s the queen, and we’re the sorry people
• You’ll never see this face again!
• I keep losing at deals and I don’t want to make any deals!
• A bump in the road comes, and she wants to be sarcastic

Honestly, I could repeat them all day long every day but, because I love Allen and don’t want to drive him crazy, we’ll leave them in this blog haha.

It’s been a fairly good week, especially because work hasn’t been nearly as toxic as usual. Granted, the work has been, I guess, a little lighter, but really I just think my attitude has changed. Staying on top of writing, and writing when I can, has somehow just really shifted how I’ve approached work lately, and I’m super thankful for it. Now that being said, the damn ads that run on the TV right next to my department are driving me crazy. I love them, but if I have to hear Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard promote Hello Bello one more time, I truly think I might scream. But other than that, and some customers that literally should’ve just walked right back out the door, work has been pretty doable.

Tuesday was a great day, partly because I was off on Wednesday so I was looking forward to getting off work, but mainly because it was a surprise date night. And it was funny, because I was already planning to surprise Allen by stopping at the store and grabbing us a bottle of Rumple, and he surprised me by propositioning for us to go to James River Winery after work. We did that, and it was lovely, even though the tasting person wasn’t really invested in telling us about the wines, but whatever. We sat upstairs and on a balcony, it was really pretty. And we had no idea James River had that big of a dual room upstairs, so that was nice to see. But the view overlooking the front yard of the winery was so beautiful, and it was such a gorgeous day outside, it was amazing. Then we decided to just make it a full date night and grab some dinner, so we headed over to Havana, singing musical songs on the way, and I proposed my idea for a musical karaoke night, so we’ll see if that happens in the near future.

My day off was spent basically playing Sims 4 most of the day. I had a FaceTime and Sims date with Benzo, so that actually played out wonderfully, and it was really nice to do that again after so long of not being able to do so. And because my obsession with Fire Emblem has furthered, if you can believe that, I’m naming my Sims’ kids after some of my favorite me from Fire Emblem Heroes, so that’s been great. I don’t know what it is lately, but I’ve been getting back into Fire Emblem Heroes more and more lately, and I’m basically just really into all of Fjorm’s siblings because they’re precious and I love them.

The rest of the week was fairly chill, catching up on our tv shows, and then Friday the new season of Queer Eye came out, so that’s been fucking us up. Saturday we sort of had a bunch of plans. Of course I worked during the day, but once I got home, we headed over to his friends Emily’s mom’s birthday party, which I was a little apprehensive about but it was actually a lot of fun, and I wished we could have spent more time there. But my stomach was not having it after I guess it was Friday night? No, I think it was Thursday where we drank some Rumple while we did Shot Smash, and it was a lot. My stomach was messed up all of Friday at work, and then it was still recovering Saturday, but it was still a lot of fun despite not being able to partake in a whole lot of drinking. Then we left there and followed through with our plans with Chelsea, and that was pretty chill. Then when we left there, we ended up getting some McDonald’s, and then bed haha. 

Sunday was a chill day, thankfully, and while Allen was out at brunch for Rebecca’s bridal party brunch, I went and got my haircut and then came home and started watching Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, but I haven’t finished it yet, so I’m looking forward to being able to do that on my day off Wednesday. And I’m just already ready for my day off. I don’t want to leave the house at all. I want to maybe finish Fallen Kingdom, do some writing (and I really need to plot out the timeline REALLY bad), and play some Sims. That’s literally it. That sounds so damn good. 

Until next time,

— Justin

Drunk Words, Sober Wallet

| Now Playing: Mama Say by Betty Who |

Come with me

I’m what you need

I’ll light you up

‘Cause I can see the fire in your eyes

Welcome to your fantasy

Your wildest dreams

I’ll show you things you never knew you liked

What if we kiss

Just like this

Go insane tonight

What would your mama say?

What would your mama say?

You know you love a pretty girl

With a twisted mind

And you love it when my loving hurts

You tell me all the time

So don’t apologize

Give it to me one more time

You know you love a pretty girl

What would your mama say?

Ooh baby

Look at you now

Oh

You love a pretty girl

And her twisted mind

So good it hurts

Oh baby

Don’t apologize

Don’t you know that I’m

Just a pretty girl

Oh you know you love a pretty girl

With a twisted mind

And you love it when my loving hurts

You tell me all the time

So don’t apologize

Give it to me one more time

You know you love a pretty girl

What would your mama say?

_____________________________________________________________

I know, the song in the NP isn’t new but because of Betty’s new album, I’ve been listening to it again and ugh, it’s so good. Literally some of her songs are so uplifting and with the way work has been lately, I’ve needed it. Speaking of, ugh, it’s back to work, and I’m not necessarily about it. I think I’m just really tired for some reason, and I just want to sleep. Thank God it’s only a two day stretch before my next day off. Even if I do have to get up at 7:30 ON MY DAY OFF. But I digress.

This past week has been a little transformative in a way. Well, as far as writing goes. I tried to do some writing on Sunday, the same way I always do, in my notebook before typing it up, but my hand is starting to hurt when I write way quicker than it used to. So I thought that it was time to transition to more computer based writing, as in just typing it up as it comes to me. But before I put that to practice, we went and got sushi, which I suggested drunkingly Friday night when we cooked for Kelly and Andrew, which was great, and Allen had a few errands he wanted to run. We ended up going to 2nd & Charles (which I have never been to before) because he wanted tarot cards, and holy shit. How have I never seen / been to this store before? It’s basically a Barnes & Noble if Barnes & Noble sold prepared books, and I love it. But we ended up leaving after I perused a little bit, and then he wanted to clean out his car, and I had a nice little photo shoot because I was feeling it.

Monday was a hard day work wise. It was just a lot. Aside from the normal bull, I was just so over the place. And it was just enough. After telling Allen about it, he ended up suggesting going to Kelly and Andrew’s, so that’s what we did after work. He brought his tarot cards and did readings for everyone, and that was fun. Oh, and we went to Viva for dinner, my first time that the Mexican place, and it was okay.  Not as good as the place Katie took us too, but still pretty decent. Tuesday at work was more of the same, and I was so glad to be off the next day.

My day off, Wednesday, was a pretty fun day actually. I ended up doing something super spur of the moment and ended up going and seeing Happy Death Day 2U by myself and I forgot, after only doing it once before, how sort of nice it is to go to the movies by yourself. Plus I knew it wasn’t Allen’s type of movie, and he hasn’t seen the first one like I did last week, so there ya go. The movie was pretty amazing, and was really good at not being too predictable. After that, I headed home and started typing up what I had left in my notebook, and then I broke away from said notebook and started writing on my own on my laptop. And I’m pleasantly surprised at the results. In the past when I’ve tried to write things without a notebook first, I had this sort of writer’s block that would prevent me from being able to get the words out right. But low and behold, that wasn’t the case for me on Wednesday, and I wrote some pretty good stuff, if I do say so myself.

Then Thursday happened. Thursday was a rough day. That was the day I got pulled to a different department for two hours, so my department suffered. And for some dumb reason. And in retrospect, I see how I reacted I’m not the best way, but when I tell you that work has been rough mentally, it has. It’s just really hard when you do something so well and you can’t do it dual-time. Add the fact that you don’t have a co-worker support system at the job you currently stress over, and it’s a lot. But it’s just because I want to write full-time so bad. Friday ended up being okay, I was able to disassociate myself from work and just focus on writing and everything. After work we ended up treating Lorin and Jimmy to Cooper’s Hawk as their weeding gift, and that was a time. So much so that I ended up calling out of work Saturday. Which honestly I needed because when was the last time I had a weekend off or even two days off together? Vacation doesn’t count 😂.

Saturday we finished Umbrella Academy, so good, and Sunday we did our writing and studying respectively, twice and played Smash and all that good jazz. I’m just thankful that Allen and I can have open discussions like we did both during the week and the weekend, and everything still be right afterwards. Oh, and he got us tickets to this wine station tasting event thing that I think is next weekend? So that should be fun. Other than that, it’s full steam ahead on writing now that I’m trying to do as much as possible, aka while I’m on lunch now too, and it’s helping me deal with work stress, I’ll take whatever help I can get there. Also, I started watching Kelsey (from Buzzfeed?)’s Sims 4 videos where she’s doing the 100 Baby Challenge that Allen has been watching. So that’ll consume most of my time this upcoming week. 

Until next time,

— Justin

Reprise

| Now Playing: Whisper by Betty Who |

Why do you gotta be, gotta be

Gotta be bad for my health?

Even my therapist telling me

You're the reason I need help

Every time you come around

I'm back at square one, square one

How do you get in my, get in my

Get in my head like that?

It's like a button you push

And my body keeps bring me back

Heaven knows I'm wrapped around

The tip of your tongue, your tongue

It's so heartless

When you whisper in my ear

Then you whisper in my ear

Then you whisper in my ear like

This

Come take a ride, don't say goodbye, let's run away

Swear on my life, let's roll the dice and leave today

Straight from your lips into my soul, I can't resist

When you whisper in my ear

Then you whisper in my ear

Then you whisper in my ear like

This

_________________________________________________________

Ugh, over it. As I write this on Saturday, that’s just how I feel. I returned to work this week, after an eight day vacation, and I’m just meh, checked out. 

The rest of my vacation was great, even though I didn’t get as much writing done as I wanted to. Granted, I got a pretty good bit done, but not nearly as much as I would have liked. I spent most of Monday fixing my Sims 4 video footage that had messed up on me. And as I said previously, I wasn’t really doing a whole lot because Sunday truly took its toll on me. Tuesday was spent relaxing from what I can remember. I did so some writing, but after Allen got off work, we were meeting at these apartments to tour them. And that didn’t really go as expected, because 1. The apartment weren’t that great and 2. We apparently make too much money to be able to be accepted. Literally, what kind of shit is that, when we would be barely affording the apartment to begin with?

Wednesday I actually did something I’ve been talking about for over a year and something that I’ve been wanted to do for a while. The first being that I went to Barnes & Noble to get out of the house and write, even though I didn’t write a whole lot, but it was nice to see. I actually ended up writing more once I got home from Barnes & Noble, but I digress. And the second thing I did was I had always joked around about taking a copy of my book and putting it in the shelves myself at Barnes & Noble, since they only sell my book inline, and it’s just been a dream of mine to have my book actually be tangibly on the shelves in one of the store, so I sort of made it happen. I took the copy of my book, that I bought, and set it on the shelf where it would have been had they sold it in store. It made for an awesome picture too. I’ll insert it here if I can get Blogger to work with me. 

But a weird thing happened when I was leaving the Barnes & Noble. As I was leaving, the security thing started going off, as if I had stolen something and everyone was looking at me. No employee was seemingly coming, so I just dipped. And then a cop was following me as I left but they finally passed me, but I was hella freaking out for a little bit there. Thursday, I literally was relaxing since it was my last day of vacation. I ended up watching Happy Death Day and Death Cure, the latter of which was mediocre but I loved Happy Death Day and I was in a weirdly good movie after watching it? I really want to see the second one, but at least waiting to see the first one was worth the wait. We’ve also started alternating between watching episodes of Westworld and Umbrella Academy, super fun.

And then some weird stuff went down, and my grandma called to tell me about it, involving my cousin and her boyfriend. It’s pretty crazy and gory, so I won’t get into it, but it’s literally something out of a movie or something. And now my cousin is moving to Florida to start over. She’s always been the one I’ve been the closest to out of my cousins, so it’s a little sad, but I can’t blame her. She’s been through a lot, so I can’t say that I wouldn’t want the same if the roles were reversed. 

Plus, I came back to work Friday and Saturday and it’s just these huge messed left for me to deal with. On top of the fact that all of Friday and most of Saturday I didn’t have a handheld because guess what? Someone’s taken mine and hidden it or lost or whatever you want to call it because no one has used it since the day after I started vacation, and it wasn’t in its assigned locker when I got back from vacation. 

I’m just ready for another vacation. 

Until next time,

— Justin