With all due respect to the greatest princess and greatest villain seen here...

This third-shift job just isn't working out. -_-

Being nocturnal hasn't been all bad. I've been blessed with some great views and picked out constellations I hadn't seen since high school astronomy. The night truly is a wonderful time. But when I have to drag myself into a ghastly, gleaming facade of consumer artifice known as 'Wal-Mart' each evening at ten, its beauty is lost. I hoped it would give me a place to hide--from my anxieties, from a world that often frustrates and confuses me--but you can't hide and pay the bills at the same time. It makes no difference where I go; I don't seem to belong.

Who wouldn't want to be Spike in this picture? I know I need a hug.

It's days like this that make me wish I really could go off and live in Equestria. But if this world were not so troubling, would Lauren Faust have thought up Equestria to begin with? That's why good and bad are not directly opposed ideas; if you look closely enough, they are always intertwined. You have to take the bad with the good, and I try.

But I can't do it here, and that's why I am quitting the job. It's boring, too many of the people are jerks and nothing I do really matters. You'd be surprised how depressing stocking shelves can be. No matter how well you do the job, they're always a disaster the next day. It's a constant battle to keep customers (and other employees) from making a mess of the store, and with no chemistry with the people here (they enjoy Jerry Springer unironically, that might say it all) and no full-time benefits in sight (they screwed me on a technicality), it's a battle I'm tired of fighting.

It was that emotional fatigue that sent me driving home early tonight, through the first blizzard of the season, but no sweat. I'm a seasoned veteran of Minnesota winters and I made it home just fine. As my dog jumped up to greet me and I let her out, I reminded myself: only one more night after this. One more night of work, and then I'll probably go back to a day job. Luna didn't hold it against me--in fact, she gave me a parting gift. When I stepped outside later to let the dog back in, I saw a whitetail deer standing in the snow less than 30 feet away. It was a beautiful doe, just watching me to see if I was a threat. I was not; I just looked back at her for a long minute, and finally she scampered away into the trees. Soon I'll be escaping, too.

So where do I go from here? Hard to say, but luck is usually on my side. I'll find another opportunity somewhere. In the meantime, I'm going to go home, surprise my family at Christmas dinner and enjoy the holidays. Right after poking fun at all the doomsayers on December 22nd.