Dear Gamespot,

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So, on Monday, while already in stupid amounts of pain from straining my side at the gym, I got given a program at work that I had started on Friday afternoon and then handed off to someone else.

When I took a look, I realised the guy hadn’t done very much at all, so I went on to his timesheet (everyone’s is saved in a communal folder) to see if he got it mid shift, which would explain barely any being done.

Lo and behold, what do I find but him claiming to have done my part, his part and a minute’s extra captioning. In other words, to keep his productivity ratio above the obvious “I’ve done fuck all”, he’s LIED.

I should probably also point out that he and my boyfriend were mistakenly in a class together for a few weeks at film school, and this is also the guy that plagiarised a whole assignment from another student by simply switching the name up the top.

It’s people like him and my head of department that have me job hunting at work… Then again, my department may be made redundant in the next year or so, so maybe I should just stick it out.

Dear supervisors,

It would be really nice if someone had actually told me, BEFORE I started doing it the way it’s always done, that this script had to be dealt with a different way. Thanks to nobody telling me anything YET AGAIN, I’ve now got to go back and fix up everything I’ve done on this shift so far.

In future, please try not to suck so hard at actually giving instructions instead of constantly assuming that someone else has already told me this. This is the second shift in a row where people have assumed I can do whatever is assigned to me, despite being out of training only a month. I know the basics back to front, but things which aren’t part of my job description will obviously baffle me, and changing the way things are done will inevitably lead me down the wrong path.

Sincerely,
The girl in booth 9

Red has this friend, who basically looks like a scrawnier, less-attractive version of him. Let’s call him Ted (rhymes with Red…).

So, Red sometimes has his friends to the house on a Friday or Saturday night, to play video games, which is all well and good. But EVERY TIME Ted comes over, whether it be with other people or just by himself, he sits in my usual spot. When it’s him by himself, it’s not so bad, since there’s still a couch. But when everyone else is here, I’m basically banished to the dining table and my computer, or I can sit on an uncomfortable mini armchair right next to the TV so I can’t even watch properly.

Anyway, the main thing that annoys me about it is that he treats it AS HIS RIGHT to sit there, and when we were talking about where we sit the last time he was here, he was like, “I sit here because I always sit here and I’m a creature of habit”.

The thing is, this is just part of the bigger picture with how Ted annoys me. He basically doesn’t care about anyone else in regards to his habits. He’s also perpetually single (not for lack of trying), a compulsive gambler, an alcoholic, never eats but will come and snack at ours, and loves misogynist jokes (while only half joking); and he WHINGES about the being single CONSTANTLY. (Honey, if you’re never going to have any money because you blow it on cards; and you still live at home with your mother at 26; plus you don’t even have a licence, let alone a car - it might be a bit hard for you to find a woman to overlook that AND your misogynistic jokes.)

But yes, this is my rant over, considering he’s coming over in an hour and I still have to have dinner. We don’t have much in the way of snack-food tonight, so he might be a little disappointed with the range on offer…

Don’t get me wrong, he’s a nice guy. He just irritates the hell out of me sometimes, and whenever he comes over, I get to be the background noise while he and Red play.

You know what? I LOVE it when you sit there all night with your headphones on, yelling and shouting about something on your game, then when I even say something to you, you either shout, “HUH?” or snap at me for ‘mumbling’ when I’m saying it very clearly and YOU JUST CAN’T HEAR ME.

Therefore I basically have no rights, and no say, yet I’m constantly doing shifts because apparently I have nothing better to do with my life than hang out with old people who either a) tell me I’m doing things wrong, or b) are trying to push their religious beliefs on me. FML.

I vacated my house for an entire weekend because my aunt had let me know about a month ago that she wanted to have some people to stay while my grandparents were away, and they had a three year old (she herself has a one year old).

Without being asked, I stayed at Red’s all weekend (which I usually do), came home this morning expecting to see them packing up and cleaning up whatever mess they made…and my aunt comes up to me and says they’re all staying tonight as well. This rather puts a damper on my day and night, because currently I’m being prevented from using my own bathroom as the three year old wanted a bath in there, also from putting the mail in my grandparents’ room because the one year old was having a nap in there, and from using the kitchen at all, because they all congregate there every five seconds and make preparing my food in peace that much more difficult.

So, all I have been able to eat today is two chocolate chip cookies I managed to steal from the kitchen in the few brief moments they actually vacated it.

Tomorrow is Australia Day. Over a week ago, I asked my grandmother if I could use their granny-flat on the water, next to the pool. She said yes, as long as I was happy to share with my relatives if they wanted to come down.

Today, my relatives show up, with bags full of food and clothing, and while I’m on the way out the door they ask me what I’m doing tomorrow. I mention that I want to have a barbecue down at the water, and my uncle basically shows a complete unwillingness to share the place. I tell him that I very rarely have people over (which is true) and say “we can share, can’t we?”.

No response to that, so I continue out the door and off to the supermarket to buy groceries for tomorrow. While at the supermarket, I get a call from my grandmother (same grandmother who yelled at me earlier in the month) who says my uncle has just called her. Instead of talking to me, he’s called up her to say that I want to use the space they’ll be occupying - and she forgot to mention to him that I’d asked her last week if I could use it. I explain to her that the ONLY thing we want to do down there is to use the pool, if she’ll let us use the barbecue up at the house. She agrees and then HANGS UP ON ME, so I continue shopping and then go home.

Once I get home, my uncle rings me and has completely changed his tune, saying how awesome it would be to hang out all together and with my friends, barbecue and have a drink. I know he’s only doing it to smooth things over so I won’t be pissed at him for calling my grandmother behind my back (too late!) and assuage his guilty conscience.

So, the party stays up at the house, and I get to be annoyed at my uncle. Hopefully my grandmother won’t be a total cow when she comes home in about an hour…

Last week, in her tirade, my grandmother accused me of doing nothing without being asked (yeah, like I can read her twisted mind ever). Today, as well as job hunting, I unstacked the dishwasher, wiped down the kitchen, packed up the mattress and bedding left on the floor by my aunts, and packed away the Christmas tree (which took over an hour because of someone doing weird things with the tinsel and the lights when setting it up). The only acknowledgement she made was: “Can you sweep the floor where the tree was?”

I give up. Seriously. This woman accuses me of being lazy and unhelpful, so I pick up my game and attempt to read her mind, and she doesn’t even bother to acknowledge it.

Good news is that this weekend I’m going to look at an apartment I can afford even now, on my minimal monthly allowance. Red is coming with me, and then we’re going to the travel agent to get a quote for our trip in May, to Europe. Thank goodness for small things to look forward to.