Below are the 5 most recent journal entries recorded in The Apotheosis of Christopher's InsaneJournal:

Saturday, July 26th, 2008
7:23 am	Alterations Angst http://aeneas-rising.livejournal.com/276601.html Later this morning, a man will try to get alterations free on some suits I sold him earlier this month. I may just tell him "no" and let him return the stuff. This will be maybe $100 out of my pocket. It was a big sale. I may, instead, point out that -The $750 he spent on the actual suits (accessories being a different matter) represented well over 450 hours of labor in a garment factory alone... to say nothing of the shipping and retail work investment. -The $125 in alterations he is trying to welch out of represents over 6 1/2 hours of work for our on-site master tailor and is subsidized by our company. How much do you think a skilled craftsman like a tailor gets paid? They aren't flipping burgers back there. -The $10 "gift" (an upgraded garment bag) that he demanded go along with the purchase came out of my pocket... albeit reduced by my employee discount. Men's Wearhouse doesn't do freebies. I, the salesman, did. -I will be there even though I'm supposed to have the day off. I'm there because he and other customers asked me to be there. On *my* time. I don't mean to play the sympathy card too hard. Men's Wearhouse makes a healthy profit, and I make a decent (if substandard) living at it. It just bothers me when people imply that my tailors or I are personally somehow cheating them. Oddly, I'm more protective of my pint-sized tailors' honor than I am of my own. (Comment on this)
6:02 am	This was supposed to be a short post http://aeneas-rising.livejournal.com/276285.html Last night I finished a nearly month-long, very private project. Yay. Now I shall have free time. Now I think I have my next one lined up; I abandonned my plans to build and paint Enochian tablets some months ago when a supplier failed to come through with the li'l wooden pyramids. I think that it is time to seek another source and start again. Yesterday I went in search of bath products (MANLY!) and ended up buying all of Bath & Body Works' Ylang Ylang scented stuff since it was clearenced to the point of being nearly free and I enjoy the scent. I'm not sure how I feel about being the sort of guy who has a frangrance theme. I failed to contact my school today to get the promised schedule. I found myself overwhelmed at work and forgot all about it... just as I've often forgotten other semi-essential things (Will and Resh, calling family on their birthday) a lot lately when my schedule has become impacted. I think I need to set my iPhone to remind me. It is sad that such external reminders are needed- It seems to me to be a personal failure to need such a crutch. I wasn't supposed to work tommorow. Then I was only supposed to be in for the meeting (8:30-9:30 AM). Then I told a great customer that I'd be there to help him if he showed up when we opened... then another, then another, then another in sequence (10:30, 11:30, 12:30). I can now reasonably expect to be out of there by 1:30 or 2 PM. It is great to be appreciated at work, but I have to ask... where the hell were all of these customers wanting to make appointments every other Saturday that I have worked? Where were they when I was standing around being forced to make small-talk with my coworkers all of those pointless mornings making below minimum wage? I guess I should just be happy to have a job in this economy, and to have a series of people making appointments to buy wool jackets from me in California in the summer. Salez Skillz, yo. On a related note, neither my introspection nor my therapist have generated an answer for my ongoing concern about my inability to make small talk with normal people. I've been trying. "Hey Bob, how's the lawn? The kids? Nice weather we're having." I can do it, but I feel like anyone with the least bit of interpersonal awareness can tell that I'm uncomfortable and am bullshitting. In most cases they either can't or are polite enough not to mention it... I really need to quit overthinking certain things. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
7:00 am	http://aeneas-rising.livejournal.com/275753.html It was quite a day. If I turned off my internal narrative about life and quit trying to make a coherent story of it, I think it would be lovely right now. ... I was stalled by my academic advisor again. "I'll have your schedule to you by Friday." Otherwise the day was spectacular. (Comment on this)
Monday, July 21st, 2008
4:48 am	Hella Norcal http://aeneas-rising.livejournal.com/275398.html Dispatch from Sacramento: I always look like a terrorist when I return from a trip. Somehow a run to Walgreens is never on the agenda to pick up shaving cream, so right now I have a five-day stubble. I'm not sure when "scruffy" turns into "unibomber", but that threshold has been crossed. Tommorow I get to see a pretty ladyfriend. This leaves the unhappy choice between dry shaving, shaving with floofy chick shaving cream that my sisters use for their legs, or showing up a-la Al Gore circa 2006. I think I shall smell of baby powder and lilacs. Tommorow I will also get my schedule for USF to complete my degree. I hope. On the upside this involves going in to The City, where I shall negotiate or do battle with one "Francisco, from the University of San Francisco!!!!" Yes. Whenever he says it one can hear all four exclamation points. Today we travelled to Watsonville to find my non-driving youngest sister a 1980 Roadmaster Harley Davidson moped for her birthday. It putters and aspires to zoom. Now she can finish her beauty school without having to face the terrors of public transportation. Now I can no longer taunt her by singing "Beauty School Drop Out" from Grease. Shame that. I was rather proud of my show-tune. Someday I will have a vacation that is not a series of missions. If they could be trained to use the toilet and completely waxed, I think I'd really like the cats here. They are absurdly affectionate and go about their day prosecuting inscrutable missions of their own, skittering about on the hardwood floors dead set on achieving... something. My old herbal store in Santa Cruz has undergone some sort of modernization. It now includes a super-crunchy granola supermarket (which makes Trader Joes and Whole Foods look like cheap gas station convenience stores) and has switched out its bins of dried herbs for pharmasutical grade alcohol and oil extracts. My reaction to this was... mixed. I bought in bulk, however. My mortar and double boiler will go unused, but I was just going to do the extraction myself anyway... I hadn't worn sandals in years. Ouch. Ouch ouch. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
7:27 pm	Updates http://aeneas-rising.livejournal.com/275071.html Since my last post: I accidentally set my computers time/date a month forward and posted here. When I set it back, I found myself locked out of posting here lest (horror of horrors) my posts should be out of sequence. Meh. I guess I could have set my clock forward each time I posted.... I won my war at work. While no one really "wins" an office fight, particularly not at my company, I achieved all of my goals while sustaining only minimal damage myself. Ding dong quoth the munchkins, the witch is dead My new boss has made work much more tolerable. If I planned to stay it would really rock... I've resumed my weekly or better trips LA-wards. I'm reconnecting with some people, looking to reconnect with others. At some point there should be a goth-ish night in the offing. Malediction perhaps? Homemade cookies are delicious. I'm done wallowing in fail. The time to take my 2nd degree is coming soon. I haven't scheduled it yet, but I can feel the need building as my מלכות issues are resolved or at least reconciled with. Likewise, a traditional masonic initiation should be in que thereafter... though this time I won't have one fall so hard on the heels of the other. I realise in retrospect that taking two unrelated initiations in sequence is like trying to appreciate a fine wine and a fine rum at the same time. Unmatched doublefisting isn't just gluttony, it is confusing! I attended the LVX practical magick session last week led by Fr. WIT. It was what I've been waiting for in a lot of ways in terms of coming back to group work. Apparently I will also be childing the Mass late next month opposite a someone I hope to become better friends with. Given that LEO will be the priest, I'm stoked! Once my plate is cleared of things to memorize I may move on to the deacon role, though my calling to that is not what it should be to fully embrace the responsability. I'm about to go north for a week (Thursday the 17th through Tuesday the 22nd) to see my family, resolve my school issues, knock some sense into one or two people who need it, and maybe get to visit a few friends I too seldom see. The Equinox thrills and annoys me. 105 degrees is too hot for a suit. This applies doubly when one has no air conditioning in ones car. You should drink more water. Veritas (Comment on this)