Bored out of my mind

My plant is shut down for the next 2 weeks. That means there will mostly just be the salaried staff in the plant. Some of the maintenance crew will also be around, but none of the operators on my shift will be in the plant.

It also means I get to work during the day instead of at night like I usually do.

In short, it sucks. I enjoy the operators in my plant - they're funny, they're dynamic, they're hardworking and they're very intelligent. I know them a lot better than I know the salaried folks in the plant, partly because I work opposite hours from the salaried team, and get to spend hours in the plant each night with the operators!

I can't believe how much I miss the people on my shift in the plant, even the ones who give me drama. :-) It's a little disconcerting...

So I will probably be in meetings for much of the 2 weeks. I intend to go visit some people over the shut down - my parents, my friends, and probably do some 'hanging out' (whatever the flying f*ck that means!).

I'm back on facebook, after a hiatus of about 1 year. A year ago, something unusual happened to me, precipitating a series of changes that I have still been unable to explain: I left facebook, I started a new job, bought a new car, cut off communication from all but 3 of my Princeton buddies, became vegan, made a clean break from religion and basically started life anew. I still can't explain the reasons for these changes/decisions, but I know that they've been deeply rewarding. I've learned a lot of stuff on my job - indeed my job has shown me just how little I actually knew about manufacturing! I've lost an eye-popping amount of weight, my car is no longer new (it's got ~6000 miles on it), but I still love it nonetheless.

I recently stopped being vegan, but that has only served to remind me of how little I enjoyed meat in the first place. I got a headache the first time I ate chicken again, after the year-long break, so I'm really wary of meat and meat-products now.

I went from a diet with a daily dose of meatballs (home-made), to a pure vegan diet; strangely, I didn't miss meat.

In other matters, I am in the middle of a movie right now. It's called 'Without Shame', and it's on Youtube. It's a Nigerian movie, and it sucks phat ballz. It's about a wealthy man with an absolutely stunning wife (what Nigerian men would call 'lip-smacking, finger-licking good!'). The man has a son from a prior marriage, but the boy's mother passed away. Thus the man lives in a mansion with his wife and his son. One day, his wife leaves him because she thinks her step-son is full of drama. Meanwhile, her sister comes over to visit and seduces her the man (her sister's husband). The step-son finds out and blackmails her into sleeping with him. As you can probably tell, it's full of unrealistic and implausible plot twists. The plot is weak, the acting is whack, the audio is pathetic, yet I can't tear my eyes away from the screen. Something is seriously wrong - I'm bored out of my mind! It reminds me a little of the soap operas my mother has always bee fascinated by: Days of Our Lives, As the World Turns, Guiding Light, etc. I usually sit on the couch for hours, bemoaning the poor quality of the plots, yet I never switch channels. :-) I suppose these are my guilty pleasures.

It's going to rain soon. I love it when it rains - it takes me right back to my childhood, sitting by the window watching it rain, cooking with my brothers and sisters, loafing around the house. We had 6 months of near-daily rainfall in Nigeria, from March till September or thereabouts; nothing beats the beauty of tropical rain, and that earthy smell that immediately precedes and follows it. If there is one thing I miss about Nigeria, it's the rain.