Today could've been so horrible. I got like, no sleep last night. And I'm having my period, which since I've stopped taking birth control, has been pretty ouchy.

But it wasn't horrible! It was AWESOME! Why? I was voted Employee of the Month! Meeee! Employee of the month! It rocks so hard. I got a 25 dollar gift card to use at the store, and I get lunch with the boss-boss. I was so excited. And so flattered!

I hear though, that not that many people get that excited about it (boss-boss told me she thought it was nice to see that I did, for a change). But I don't know why. It's so awesome. I mean, even if you didn't care how great you were doing, it's still 25 bucks and a free lunch! And I DO care how I'm doing and have always been terribly insecure as to how well I'm doing/how well people like me at a new place. And this says I am doing well and people do like me. And I'm the first one of the newer employees to get employee of the month. And I apparently won by a much larger margin than most people win. Especially since the boss-boss, Carmax, and I were talking and boss-boss told us that the people from the inventory team kind of cheat every month and form this voting block where they pick one of themselves to vote for every month and they all vote for the person and if the rest of us don't all vote for anyone in particular or are slackers and don't vote, then that person wins.

It was also cool, when I told Carmax, she was really excited for me and kept bringing it up around other people who would then congratulate me (which made it easier to brag without bragging). Carmax and I were actually both slackers, neither of us voted this time. She'd meant to vote for me, she said. I myself meant to vote for this chick who works part time in the children's section. I'm not great friends with her, but she's really nice and always helping me find stuff in the kids section, which I'm admittedly poor at finding things in. In addition, I had recently been at the cash register ringing up this lady who was just raving about how great this chick was, so it seemed to me enough to vote for her about. Honestly, I am kind of apathetic about the voting because I have this mind set that something out of the ordinary has to happen that they get special recognition for, so this gave me something to vote on. Only I was too late and never got around to doing it. And also she wouldn't have won anyway, because apparently I won by a landslide! Boss-boss said that I won by 6 votes which is a much larger margin than there usually is. Boo ya!

So anyway, Carmax and I decided that we're going to vote for this chick next time, and try to get other people to vote for her too (I get the feeling she doesn't have a lot of buddies that would immediately think of voting for her, as she's somewhat shy with most of us). And Carmax says it's her personal mission to get other people as excited about employee of the month as her and I are (even though we were the slackers that didn't vote last time).

I have had a good month (the commendation for splitting my shift, and the corporate account -- which the two ladies I sold that to were in again today, and I was really happy to see them. And apparently they've been back two times since then and they bought a lot of stuff ever since the first time. So it was really awesome to see them again and know that they were that happy because I hooked them up with that account and the store was that happy to have their business and I was that happy to be appreciated for getting their business in our store) but I was a little surprised at the overwhelming edge I had. Boss-boss said it's because whenever anyone wants me to do anything, I'm like, "Okay," and I thought that was cool. I do switch shifts with people quite a lot if they need it because I don't really have anything else going on. Carmax said it was because I have such a big mouth. When she said that, I was like, "What?" And she explained that she can hear my voice all over the store (I am quite loud, actually something I'm not so happy about usually) and she knows if she hears me when she comes in, it's going to be a good day because I'm fun to work with. So that was nice to hear.

I also mentioned it to Sista, and she was like, "I voted for you!" which was cool. That's the other side of the award, other than knowing I do a good job which is nice to know in and of itself. But this other side is popularity, because it's a voting thing. I've always been one of the least popular people in whatever group I happen to be in, but I have been making friends with a lot of people at work. It's nice to know that people who don't necessarily know you have commendation in your file or that you got a corporate account (except they do all know because I was so excited that day I told everyone) like you enough to vote for you (Sista) or at least mean to vote for you (Carmax).

Also, today was pretty cool because I got some compliments on my outfit. I got a skirt this weekend and wore it today. I've always thought skirts were pretty, but I hate short ones because you have to sit just so or else you show everyone stuff you don't want to. And then after awhile I realized that's why I hate skirts, so a few months ago I got a medium one. Only it's like, linen and I have to iron it and it's a pain in the ass and on top of that my mom's a total jerk about it and won't let me leave the house wearing it unless I've shaved my legs which is the line in the sand, I'm just not shaving my legs for any reason ever unless I find a man willing to shave HIS legs for me. Aaaaanyway, I got a couple REALLY long skirts this weekend that are also not linen, so I wore one of them today and people complimented me, which was nice.

So it was a good day.

Oh, also, I find this funny: at dinner the other night I mentioned how I sold my mom the new Rod Stewart album. Then today one of my managers and I were standing right in front of the Rod Steward display and I mentioned the story, and he already knew because Opri (Optimus Prime) had mentioned it at morning meeting one day while I was off. And I told my mom and she's a bit worried now that her buying habits are now a subject discussed at my store's morning meeting. Muahahahah. I found it quite funny but a bit eerie myself.