(Yes, that is also the title of a Batman Animated episode, but trust me, it's especially fitting for this particular post.)

Sleaze-tastic day at The Job today, entirely due to one particularly annoying and somewhat creepy guy who comes in with the trucks and unloads them in the back of the store (termed a "swamper" apparently, I have no idea why.)

I originally met this guy a couple of weeks ago when I working out on the floor; he looks about forty or so and he just randomly walked up to me and began chatting me up.  It started out as simply a little weird and very soon became irritating as he continued to repeatedly and purposefully track me down in the store through out the day.  A co-worker in one of the departments I was working in that day had been keeping her eye on him and reported to me later in the day that he'd approached her and asked her to say "hi" to me for him.  o_O  Ick.  Just... no.

But whatever.  The day ended, he left the store, all was good.  I made sure to mention the stalker-ish actions of said Creeper to one of my managers (we shall refer to him as Manager #1, as we have an absurd amount of managers in the store at once at any given time) that day so he was aware of it, but figured that was the end of it.

Except today I was asked to help out back in the warehouse to scan in stock, and low and behold an hour or two into the morning I hear this voice and turn around and there he is.  The Creeper.  As he exclaims a surprised and happy hello as he recognizes me, I in turn walk out of the warehouse and track down Manager #1 where he's out on the store floor and poke him:

"Manager #1!  That guy that just came into the warehouse, THAT'S THE GUY."  D:

Manager #1 grimaces in sympathy, advises me to ignore him, and gives me the green light to tell Creeper to fuck off if necessary and I'm all damn straight. \o/  As we're talking though, Manager #2 comes up and is all "?" so I explain how the sleazy truck guy has a crush on me and won't leave me alone, and upon hearing this, Manager #2 squares his great big fatherly shoulders, turns on his heel and stomps off towards the warehouse purposefully. But I'm all "Nooooooooooo... *flail flail*" because while this guy is totally annoying he's yet to say or do anything actually inappropriate, and I don't necessarily want to get him in shit and feel even more uncomfortable around him for the rest of the day than I already did, so I chase him down and ask him to leave it be.  (In hindsight, I completely should have let Manager #2 rail on him.)

So I proceed to carry on with my scanning work, and all the while through out the day Creeper is working with the warehouse guys unloading the truck a dozen feet away and consistently popping his head around the makeshift wall of boxes erected between our areas to keep up a steady stream of chatter to me.

"So what are you're hobbies, Brenna?"

"What shows do you watch, Brenna?"

"What do you think of this music, Brenna?"

"They must have given you Employee of the Year award, eh Brenna?"

"Here, let me help clean up those boxes, Brenna."

I'm reaching a point where I'd very much like to tell him to shut the hell up, but because I am far too polite for my own good at times, I ignore him for the most part and try to appease him with my taciturn contributions to this one-sided conversation he's carrying on.  He actually goes as far as to ask me if I'd like to go to McDonalds with him when he leaves for lunch.  (Needless to say I favored the sandwich waiting for me upstairs in our dingy work breakroom to his invitation.  I also purposely timed my half-hour lunch to directly coincide when he returned from his lunch to make an entire blissful hour of No Creeper Time.)

During the afternoon though he apparently decided to raise his creepy flirtation bar though.

"So are you a student, Brenna?  Are you going to school?"

"Yes."

"What are you taking?"

"Library Technology."

"Ooh, librarian, eh?  I don't really see you as a librarian --" (Wait for it... the line crossing officially... starts...) "You're face, maybe, with the glasses; but your body is too smoking hot to be a librarian."  (... NOW.)

I can't tell you why I didn't speak up at that point, I know I should have.  A part of it, I think, was that I was a little nervous what would happen if I did tell him to shut his mouth.  Let's face it, I don't know this guy from Joe Bob Dandy and I didn't want to have to feel like I had to ask for an escort out to my car at the end of the day.  To be honest I think I was mostly too embarrassed and angry to even speak.  There was a definite skin crawling sensation and I remember very clearly thinking at that moment that I wish I'd taken Mason up on his offer of getting a bunch of his tradesmen buddies together to kick this asshole's teeth in.  But in any event, I did nothing, just turned away very pointedly and continued on with my work as he stood there grinning moronically at me overtop the (not high enough!) wall of boxes, mostly likely waiting for a reaction I wasn't giving him.

A bit later Creeper is back to try again and returns to a line of topic conversation he'd pried out of me earlier in the day when he'd asked if I lived in the city and I'd replied yes and with a very emphasized "WE" thrown in with my answer to hopefully imply to him that I was not single and not looking and he was welcome to bugger the hell off any time now -- he puts on that stupid, obnoxious smirk and is all:

"So that 'we' that you mentioned earlier, you're with someone?"

"Yes. I'm married."

"Oh and does he know about me? Did you tell him all about me?"

"Yes, I told him there was some guy at work who keeps --"

"Oggling you?"  *Eyebrow waggle now accompanies motherfucking stupid grin WANT TO PUNCH HIM IN HIS STUPID SMIRKING FACE*

That is the point something snapped in my so far previously impassive front and I basically dropped the box of merchandise I was holding and looked him right in the face and wanted to scream at him "FUCK THE FUCK OFF, YOU MOTHERFUCKING FUCKER" -- but really I could never say that because unfortunately I'm a giant wimp -- but I did instead say "Can you GO AWAY?" which admittedly lacks the extra oomph that the string of expletives would have delivered, but still, bully for me I think and in any event it seemed to do the trick.  He looked startled and sort of backed away and that was the last I heard from him for the remainder of the afternoon.

I passed Manager #1 as I was heading upstairs to clock out at the end of my shift and told him how I'd had to finally tell the guy to screw off and Manager in question promised that he'd be making a phone call to Creeper McCreepinstein's employer tomorrow morning.

This is the first time I've experienced any sort of male harassment like this.  In my time I've gotten the odd catcall aimed towards me a couple of times as I walk down the street, but if I have to be perfectly honest those have never bothered me at all.  This was different.  This guy made me uncomfortable, and more over he made me angry.  I hate that he was so thick he couldn't take a hint from my stony reception towards him that he should back off.  I hate that he for some reason felt it was acceptable to say those sorts of inappropriate -- and frankly douchebaggery -- remarks to me, especially while present in front of other co-workers.  I hate that the two warehouse guys in question who were there knew that I didn't like the guy, because I had told them I didn't like him, and yet they never bothered to step in and quietly pull him aside to tell him to lay off.  I hate that this guy made me wish that a manager was present hovering over my shoulder all the time to chaperone for me.  I hate how, even despite how he finally backed off after I'd yelled at him, I still kept looking over my shoulder as I walked across the parking lot to go home.

Mostly I hate that I didn't stand up for myself and tell him to stop sooner.

And mostly I hate that I didn't kick him right in the balls, because he deserved it.  Talk about empowering.

Yesterday I got a call to come in for an interview at the Edmonton Public Library on Monday.

And today I received a call to come in for an interview at the NorQuest College Library.

Okay, AWESOME, yes; but seriously, WTF world?  I've been applying for every single page job I've seen for almost the last two years and I've never even once heard back from anyone, and all of a sudden in a period of two weeks I'm apparently in hot demand by everyone.   It's crazy.  Did someone mail out promotional flyers on my behalf or something?

*Excited! ...but bewildered.*  o_O

Today was officially my last volunteer shift at the library... because I just got hired on as SAPL's newest part-time library page! HURRAH HURRAH HURRAH!  *Does her ecstatic happy dance*

That whole thing before where I said how it was a super part-time position with only eight hours a week?  Well revise that, it's actually a very super part-time position.  Due to some complications with my schooling (it was a little touch and go for a few hours today on whether I'd be able to take the job at all) and the shifts that they need to fill, instead of twice a week as originally planned I'll only be going in once a week -- but still four hours is 100% more paid library work than I was doing before, right?  I'LL TAKE IT I'LL TAKE IT!  *Claws desperately at the air like a foaming cat flailing for a stuffed fish on a string.*  Those four hours may make all the difference between being hired for additional library jobs in the future or facing another two years of agonizing rejection at the hands of spiteful human resource personnel.  *Shakes her fist at HR minions as they cackle malevolently down in their dark, cavernous office pit and proceed to disregard her resumes and applications and use them to stoke their evil fires of pithy judgmental scorn.*  D:{

Just goes to show that enough perseverance always prevails.  And if that doesn't work, it never hurts to slip the person in charge a discreet, unmarked manilla envelope under the table.  (I'm joking, obviously.  Or AM I? No really, I am.  ORLY? *Shifty eyes*)

This past weekend a Shaw rep came and hooked up our brand spankin' new PVR!  When we changed up some of our Shaw cable/internet plans we were pleasantly surprised when we found out a free PVR was built in to the new cable box, and let me tell you, I love the this magical box!  The ability to pause live television is ingenious.  "OOH OOH, LOOKIT ME!  THERE GOES THE DOORBELL, NO WORRIES, I'LL JUST PAUSE MY SHOW LA LA LA LA!"  *Happy armflail*

You know what else was happy armflaily-filled?  Cowboys vs Aliens!  I don't care who they are, those movie critics are crazy -- CvA was awesome.  I mean, come on.  It has cowboys.  And it has aliens.  There are no surprises in this movie and no disappointments.  The movie delivers 100% on everything the trailer promises, (plus with the perk of sexy Daniel Craig in a cowboy hat!)

In comparison, you know which movie wasn't awesome?  Captain America.  I went in looking for the same radness that Iron Man and Robert Downey Jr. delivered; instead I got a two-hour long American propaganda-filled battle scene with bad acting and a bad script.  Maybe the Marvel magic lies entirely with the wonderful Mr. Downey Jr?  Or maybe Iron Man just has a way cooler costume.

Awesome thing one:

Omigod omigod omigod I've been offered an interview at the St. Albert Public Library next week!  *Ecstatic hand flail*  This time next week, after almost two years of standing outside with my face smooshed up unflatteringly against the window, I may finally have a job at a library.  (Knock on wood.)  Granted, when I said before that it was very part-time, it really is -- we're talking only several hours per week, but damnit I'd take it!  I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high obviously yet before I even go into the interview (because that always just calls upon lots of horrid, heart crushing wrath from high atop somewhere), but I'd like to think I have a pretty good chance.  (Knock knock knock.)

Any contributions to Team Brenna in the form of good wishes and heaping buckets of telepathic lucky vibes would be appreciated and encouraged.  X3

Awesome thing two:

Once again I was fortunate to experience the Box Of Fun today at work!  What is the Box Of Fun, you ask?  Simply put, it is a box that contains unparalleled happiness, joy, and downright silliness.  Imagine, if you will: a random cardboard box on a random cage cart of stock that by all means appears completely unremarkable and boring on the outside... but then you slowly cut through the packing tape... and pull open the cardboard flaps... and suddenly you are assaulted by a RAINBOW OF COLOR and SPROINGY SPRINGS and FUZZY POM POMS all exploding in your face like Fourth of July fireworks!  OMG SO MUCH FUN!  :D  IT CANNOT BE CONTAINED!

Basically it's a box of brightly colored cat scratching posts, but I'm serious, after hour upon hour of unpacking boxes full of duct tape and Lysol bathroom cleaner, there is nothing more surprising and exciting then to open a box and have a bunch of furry pom poms pop up in the air like hilarious and adorable Jack-in-the-boxes.  It's pretty much the next best thing to opening a box full of actual real life frolicking kittens.  This is the third time I've been assigned a stock cart with this particular product on it and every time I squee and giggle and just like that my day always becomes significantly more cheery.  No one else really seems to understand the full entertainment value of it though.  You really have to be there to fully experience The Fun.

Awesome thing three:

Guess what finally arrived in the mail today?  That's right.

Fuck yeah.

Haven't posted in a while.  July in a nutshell:

• We suffered a minor crisis as an indirect result of installing our new dishwasher, when we woke up the following morning to discover that we had sprung a rather frightening leak in our basement ceiling from a pipe under our kitchen floor.  Luckily Mason and his father Bob the Builder'ed it up and managed to patch up the pipe within the day, and we spent the next week with fans cranked up full force up in the roof and on the floor to avoid any possible mold or water damage.  Things are now more or less fixed and back to normal other than the giant three foot hole still in our ceiling.
• Last weekend we had an unexpected kitty-shaped visitor camp out with us for an evening.  We found the young cat out in our backyard, unneutured, with no collar or tattoos, so I set him up with some food and water, a bed, and litterbox in the garage over night until the Humane Society opened up the next day.  I figure he was a house escapee rather than a stray, considering how openly friendly and affectionate he was, but I went around ringing doorbells that morning and no one recognized his photo.  He was so sweet, he liked to headbutt and nuzzle you in the face, being all "LOOK AT HOW ADORABLE I AM! SUBMIT ALL YOUR LOVES TO ME, MUH HA HA!"  I hope he was claimed by his family, if he had one, or gets adopted by someone nice.  *Hugs him*
• Sister and I had a Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows 2 movie date!  Both halves of this last movie were surprisingly awesome for a change, a really nice wrap up to a sadly lackluster movie franchise (with the exception of the epilogue which, trust me, is just as awful in movie form as it was in the book, only now you actually get too see Ron's thirty-year-old beer gut and Malfoy's hilarious facial hair.)  I liked that they ramped up the castle battle to be a bit more epic, though I was pretty choked that they cut out Fred's death scene; also sad that they hardly touched at all on Dumbledore's backstory.  On the other hand, as much as I've been a long time hater of Alan Rickman's portrayal of Snape, he really redeemed himself a bit in this one.  He finally abandoned the whole campy Capt Kirk line delivery and the over-the-top billow genie moves for some actual acting in parts for a change.  I've never been a fan at all of the Snape/Lily ship, but I gotta say that I sobbed like a giant goober during the scene where he finds her dead in Godric's Hollow, and afterward when he's lamenting to Albus.  ;_;  Oh yeah, and btw, McGonagall?  She's hilarious.  Trust me.
• Only one month until I go back to school.  It's a little pathetic how even at the age I am now that one of the parts I get most excited for about returning to college university (MacEwan would insist on accuracy) is the prospect of new school supplies, especially when you consider that school supplies for my program pretty much consist of maybe a binder, paper, and a handful of pens.  Don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to the classes themselves, and the concept of graduating in two years and being able to secure a career I'm actually passionate about is obviously appealing, but some how that package of brand new blue Bic ballpoints makes me positively squirm with glee every time I walk by the office supply aisle at work.  Yes, it's absurd, I know.
• On the note of school and library careers, I applied for a (very) part-time page position at the St. Albert Public Library this week which I'm hoping my volunteer cred will score me first dibs at.  Even a few hours a week of legitimate library work would be great for my resume and maybe open up some opportunities for something full-time.  Please cross your fingers for me!  >_<