"But I'm not supposed to BE here!" and "Hey! That's not my dad!"

First off:

So you think you know my dad? Maybe you've seen him on choir tours, or when he's come up to see me. Maybe you only know him as Coach Jago, the pixellated wrestler/caddy/video game athlete. (God, I wish I had a screen capture of that. D!, let's get on that capture card!)

I've known him as Dad (for good reason) all my life. Within those twenty-eight years of knowing Dad, I've seen him without his trademark mustache twice.

The first time, it wasn't so much that he didn't have a mustache, as he decided to grow a beard.

After a few weeks of growing, my mom took one look at him and simply said, "Take it off."

The beard was gone the next day. (This must have been when I was about ten or eleven.)

Some undefined period later, he decided to shave the mustache off. Mom took one look at him and simply said, "Put it back on."

The mustache was back a few weeks later.

Other than those two periods, I have never seen Dad other than what everyone else has seen him like in the past thirty years. UNTIL NOW!

Dad has shaved his head/facial hair for charity. Looks a lot different, to the point of being a dead ringer for Grandma Jago's facial features. Kind of scary, actually...

* * *
I was planning on updating during a free moment, say like a day off.

Too bad that's looking less and less likely for me!

Last I posted, I was talking about feeling ill. Well, it turned into the cold that everyone had, complete with lightheadedness and vertigo. I couldn't think properly, which is not that good when I'm trying to help people at the store.

The EFB would hear me say "Look, man, I'm feeling really sick, so I'd appreciate it if I was able to take the day off, rest and recuperate just in time for the inventory we're about to have."

Of course, EFB said he really needed my assistance, even if I was nodding off at his desk when typing in stock numbers.

So I ended up working through my illness.

A funny little story that happened earlier than my cold:

My favourite radio station had a contest going on where an interesting prize was on the line. Competitors would battle it out to vie for the title of Sonic Newscaster.

Yes, that's right, the radio station's giving away a job as their newscaster for a contract of at least three months.

It got to the point that my MOM was saying, "Call in sick."

So when I asked EFB if I could come in late and make this audition, the answer was no.

Irony is, when I actually GOT sick, I had no voice, and was doing a 14 hour shift regardless.

Dang.

But, hey, check it out, my friend Randy is a finalist! Awesome!

* * *

I've taken over a store. Yes, I'm now a manager (temporarily).

The gist is, I want to see if I'm a match for my dad's kidney transplant. And if I am a match, I'll need three months to recover from major surgery. So there was really no point in becoming a manager if I was just going to leave for a quarter of a year.

"Hey, I'm your new manager! Well, see you in February! Here's your NEW new manager..."

But when a spot opened up very quickly (loss prevention issues), they told me I can do a month-long temporary manager position, so I can take my sick leave afterwards.

I was to start there today, after the old manager was to be fired. So I'd have a weekend off before starting a long haul in Clareview. And I could get my blood tested.

BUT! On Thursday, at Westmount, I was called up by the district manager.

"Hey, how quickly can you make it here?"

"Um, I've just got two new hires who can't be left alone. I'd have to wait until about 5:30 before I could get there. Why?"

"Um, we fired the old manager today."

"But my weekend?"

"Sorry."

"Blood test!"

"Sorry."

So on my way to choir that night, I made a oh-so-roundabout route to the store in order to close it for the night.

I found two girls waiting there for me.

"Hi," I said. "I'm your new manager. Sorry about all this. It's hard having a manager and assistant manager get fired on you, isn't it? So! Let's close up!"

Good plan, but when I don't know the old manager's password, and can't get into the system? Yipes. Good thing I knew someone who used to work under him, and they gave me the password.

Before I left, I told the two girls (K1 and K2) that I was to have a few days off.

"K1, you and the old AM were scheduled for tomorrow. Would it be cool if I came in for the morning, and then came back to close?"

K1 looked at me with wide eyes. "Today was my first day."

Me: "Ah. Right. Crap."

I turn to K2. "It's you, the old manager and S on Saturday. Would you be able to cope without me, and then I could close at night?"

"It's my fourth day."

"Oh. Jeez. Okay."

So, needless to say, it's been a fun journey. And by fun, I mean, I'm trying to keep sane. Luckily, I've been given permission to close at 6 on weekdays, instead of 9. Thank GOD!

* * *

Saw Serenity over the weekend. And I enjoyed it a lot, although I'm not going to post anything that people who HAVEN'T seen the movie will read beforehand.

I'll talk about that later. What I WILL talk about is the screening itself.

Because we're big geeks, a circle of my friends saw it opening night. There were nine of us, so we managed to find a row we could sit in. Unfortunately, there were so many groups, there weren't a lot of seats left to couples.

So my group scooched down a seat so we had enough room for a pair of people. My luck, it was a very hot woman. Who was obsessed with the Firefly story. And had dragged a guy friend down to see it with her.

So she's talking with her friend, and would keep on talking to me as well. I'm not so rude that I won't chat up a hottie, so we talked.

No, it wasn't "Hi." It was "Hey, who's your favourite character?" (Which, as we ALL know, means, "Let's ditch the movie, hit your car and make out.")

Me: (thinking madly to the year and a half prior I saw the DVD series) "Jain, I guess."

Apparently that was the right answer, since she started gushing about Jain.

It's not so much that Jain isn't my favourite, but more along the lines that I love the ensemble.

So, yeah, sitting next to a cute girl that had a bit strong vanilla perfume on. Still, I can handle scents like that. Good thing it wasn't Cheese Girl that she was sitting beside...