slightly better today, getting my ear re-done, work

My mood has improved a bit today - at least partially since I can't seem to maintain a bad mood for too long. Tires me out.

After work yesterday, I went for a walk and headed up to the nearby tattoo and body piercing studio - with the full intention of getting my ear re-pierced. I've been to the company before - though not at their current location. The first place was a little seedy, the second was pretty classy - well, as classy as tattoo and body piercing studios go. The new location - extra seedy.

Strike 1. Door propped open = no air conditioning. The equipment generates heat and a busy place with lots of people generates heat as well. Not going to be comfortable if a person is there very long.

Strike 2. Cash only. The signs were everywhere. Having a credit card machine takes time and money to establish. Cash only is a little more "fly by the seat of your pants". And since some tattoos can be a lot of money, that's a lot of cash to carry around.

Strike 3. The owner came out, and he was looking like hell warmed over. He did one of my first tattoos and later one of his employees examined the work and didn't have anything good to say. I dunno if he was on something, but I got a bad vibe. Especially if he was going to be the one to re-do my ear.

I asked him the price for getting my ear redone - he said it was $40.00 and that it included a silver hoop.

Strikes 4 & 5. $40.00 seemed pretty high, especially since it was redoing an existing piercing - it's not like he would have had to aim or anything. And a hoop? A hoop means the hole is going to heal around the shape - and I don't want a curved hole in my ear.

So, I said something about needing to go to the ATM and made my escape.

Back to my car and then to get my hair cut - and then to the mall. I've done enough research to now be a little disdainful of getting my ear pierced in the mall, but I got it done the first time there and figured it might not be bad. Well, I looked and looked and couldn't find what I was really looking for in either kiosk - nor could I find it in spencer gifts or even the painfully girly claires. By this point I'd decided I was just going to do it myself and needed a simple post. I settled on a pair at claires and made my exit.

Later in the evening after a little pizza, a couple episodes of Lost season 1, and a little work on my origami - I decided to get to work on my ear. I started to push the post through and it started to hurt. So I went downstairs to discover I was out of ice. Back to the bathroom, I took it slow and gently worked the post into place. It bled a bit, but not too bad, and I got it cleaned up and took a shower.

It seems fine today - but it also seems like a lot of work to get a piece of metal in my ear.


In other news, nothing new on the work front. One of my colleagues may or may not be resigning - which is stressing all of us out since we're already short handed. Getting a little tired of muddling through.

Well, I guess I should get back to the grind...