ishte, posts by tag: work - LiveJournal

So... I scheduled a week of vacation because honestly I need an F-ing break. lol. But I expected to be finished with the spring reset before I went, and it's NOT DONE after a WHOLE MONTH. Why? because a) it's HUGE, and b) right after we started working on it 5 people were out with freaking COVID (or in a couple of cases a couple of people were out pretending they didn't have Covid and refusing to test to prove it), one of those 5 was my primary help with the reset. The other person helping had a mini-vacation for her birthday over the long weekend and then was so behind on her regular duties that she has never been able to get back to the reset she was supposed to be helping with.

( Some more words under here.Collapse )

So YAY! Things!

This was way longer than I expected

I don't want to rant about this on Facebook, because I'm still mad about it, and I yet I don't want to offend anyone that might be a coworker. But yesterday a thing happened that really upset me. It upset me a surprising amount and I'm still not over it... So I need to rant about it and get it off my chest.

So I work in a pharmacy store. No need to say which one. Generally speaking I love my job, love my customers, love my coworkers, and feel like the company takes pretty decent care of us. Now since the CDC changed their guidance, to a ludicrous 5 days (corporate pressure anyone?) for people to be out, when they test positive for CoViD-19... What is it? 5 days from the time you test positive? or 5 days after you develop symptoms yourself? I don't know the answer, and when I asked about this at work, they didn't know either. This is the same crap I dealt with in 2020, when NOBODY KNEW ANYTHING, or what to do or how to handle people being out or anything, SO I missed 100% of a month because I MIGHT HAVE had CoViD. We'll never know, because at that time, nobody could get tested unless they were sick enough to be in the ER and I wasn't, and my symptoms at the time were not what they were calling typical (but now they say that a lot of people experience it that way. So when I felt well enough to come back to work, suddenly someone exposed my daughter, who in turn exposed US, so that's another 2 weeks quarantined in 2020 before I ever got to go back to work.

Now we've had CoViD-19 running through our staff. Here is how it goes:

One of our people is out long term. We don't know when they will be well enough to come back if ever.

One is suspected to have CoViD-19, but has shopped for a doctor who won't test them for CoViD-19 but was willing to write a note saying that they have symptoms consistent with 'an upper respiratory infection'. This one refuses to wear a mask, claiming a medical exemption that I can tell you 100% is based in false science. Instead this person wears a face shield which does nothing to protect him or the people around him. This person is also not vaccinated, claiming that because they have already had CoVid-19 that they don't need to be vaccinated. (again, at the very least misleading science.) I like that person but generally speaking avoid being in any kind of contact with them for any period of time. I guess the doctor cleared them to come back to work today (my day off)

Now the third one was out because their parent tested positive for CoViD-19 and they and my coworker both developed symptoms. My coworker did not test and it's been implied that they did not test IN CASE they did not develop symptoms, so they didn't have to miss 5 days of work. Well they DID develop symptoms, and were out for 5 days PER the CDC guidelines. But at that point, I hadn't been told that I'd been told they didn't test positive (and wasn't told it was because they didn't test at all.) HOWEVER, shortly after arriving they asked me if I could cover for them for a few minutes on front registers (NOT MY JOB... NOT SUPPOSED TO DO THAT) So I thought they just needed to go to there rest room, and agreed anyway since we're so short handed right now. Turns out, after I've already brushed past them that this person DID have symptoms of CoViD and did not test... and they want to be relieved because they feel hot and want to go and stand in the cooler for a few minutes. WHAT??? I ask "What? Why do you feel hot?" and the answer "Because I had COVID... Still have it really..." ... no... What THE ACTUAL FUCKERY IS THIS? I'm really flabbergasted at this point. If I had known this was the case, I would have not been any where near this person. and would have covered in the other register... but I was stuck now. In this unclean place with a giant line... UPSET and STUCK there unable to escape.

Because I am shouting, In my TYPERY I can see that this is still pretty upsetting. The thing that upsets me the most is that this person is my friend. My work friend. and they KNOW how careful I have been, and how careful I continue to be. THEY KNOW that I just lost my brother, that I have a 91 year old mother who tries to do everything herself, and that I DID NOT SEE my mother for an entire year because we were TERRIFIED to bring CoViD-19 to her door if we visited her. So now, I don't care HOW slight the chance is that I've been exposed. There is no way I'm going to go see my mom during the next two weeks until I"m 100% sure I'm not carrying. SO MAD about this. I explained to my manager why I was so upset. I'm sure my coworker things I'm being ridiculous and maybe I am... but I'm not putting my mom at risk and I feel VIOLATED that I wasn't told the truth and put myself in ONE SCRAP of risk of infecting my mom when I have been so gods damned careful.

Why do I feel so violated? Because I wasn't given honest information. Because I ended up standing in the fug of a COVID patient UNNECESSARILY because I was not given enough information until it was too late to do anything about it for 15 minutes. and because now, if my mom calls because she NEEDS something. I either have to put her at risk until I know 100% that I'm not, or I have to try to find someone I trust to have been as careful as I've tried to be to go to do the thing for her. Especially since locally now, there are only ME and her 88 year old SISTER to call.

That's why I feel VIOLATED and I'm STILL MAD... But I'm done ranting about it I think. I have to go back to work tomorrow, and hopefully act like nothing happened. I will avoid being in close contact with my coworker (and my other coworker too) until the requisite time *I* feel is safe has passed. Someone (several someones) hasn't been careful, and it wasn't me.

One a lighter note, I've pounded on my keyboard so much that my batteries died. Probably the amount of backspacing I've done because I couldn't see what I was doing.

Pro: I'm off on a Saturday for the first time in forever.
Con: I'm working on Sunday instead of Saturday because Sunday is PINK SUNDAY and I have to be there to run the event. Bleh.

I feel more or less unprepared (as usual) for Pink Sunday.  It usually happens earlier in the season, so I have both the sense of unpreparedness for my event, AND my feeling of unprepared to start the flurry "exit" activities to shift my department from holiday shopping back to normal shopping, AND preparing for Spring resets on every brand on the cosmetics wall in late January then STRAIGHT into Valentine's Day prep. Lol.

Technically it's not my job to do the resets, and now we also have a new position in our store, Inventory Specialist, but our IS is new to the job (but not as new to the store.) She and I are on the same page and same way of thinking on a LOT of things, but she's never done a coswall reset which is actually 13 resets at once plus 1 additional off the wall.  LOL. So I HOPE that my boss will let me be involved intimately with the coswall reset.  Almost always the individual resets that I don't at least supervise end up not being done correctly, sometimes with massive problems.  Like l'Oréal last year, which I had to basically redo from scratch it was such a mess, and 4 or 16 bays of internal barcodes were accidentally removed by a third person when the first person didn't communicate very well to the third person what she was actually supposed to be doing, which was NOT removing all the internal barcodes.  SO yeah... I hope it goes smoother with me and the IS and possibly a specific shift manager handling everything.  I'll have to add this into my notes to discuss with the Store Manager at our meeting next week. I think this is also her first spring coswall reset in this store, but I can't remember. She might have already been here, but if she was it was a matter of weeks.  Not to cast shade on the last manager, but I like this manager a lot better.  Mostly it's just that we see eye to eye on more stuff.  The previous manager was a bit of a controller (and CHEAP OMG, gods help us if we needed to order replacements for things. This manager is more likely to WANT us to be empowered come up with solutions and implement them ourselves.

Still working on Roy's house.  Still writing chapter 18 in my head with nothing on paper, but I'll probably start getting into the keyboard on it in the next few days. It's just been super busy at work, and SUPER busy on my day off.  Lawyer meeting scheduled to take 30 min took on HOUR and 30 min... Next item on my list was to call the gastro doctor to ask again about my stupid pill, and they were already closed by the time I walked out of the meeting. BLEH.

Oh yeah. I also cloned the pattern from my festive holiday vest (which is wearing out. Poor thing is threadbare) Expanded it an inch or two because I'm not shaped like that any more, and learned how to add a dart.  I bought cheap clearance fabric to make a mock-up to make sure I've got the dart and the expansion correct before I cut into my good fabric.  If it goes well though, one of the fabrics is a pretty nice green plaid, and the other is a white one white snowflake pattern. So if it works, I'll have another slightly less festive holiday waistcoat that could be for Yule, or St Patricks Day if I wanted it to be. We'll see.  Today all I did on it is mark the dart on the fabric from the pattern, and mark the seam in from the seam allowance. (I made a big seam allowance, so I can let it out in places it needs to be if it does.  I can always trim it when it's done.) I had some scraps big enough to cut a couple masks, so I sewed a couple of seams on them. I probably could have finished them, but I wasn't in the mood. I'm tired tonight and just want to sit on my ass.

Anyway that's my status report. lol.  How's your week been? Ready for Santa? 

On a Sidenote: I got a raise! A real one.  My boss went to bat for me to get a better raise when the starting wage went up $3 and mine only went up 58¢ for the same adjustment.  For the 58¢ raise, I literally just calculated how much it would work out to per pay period and rolled it into improving my health coverage, and adding in optical since I probably have to get a cataract dealt with next year, and let's be honest, I'm getting older. So she went to bat for me got me another $2. I didn't quite make it to $3 starters got, but I'm satisfied with that. YAY! I paid off one of my bills forever last month, so I think I'll probably take some of that raise and just have it automatically transfer into savings each pay period.  Then I think I'll start replacing the rest of my windows one by one, starting with @Marynachaotica's bedroom window which is the next worst in the house after the four we already replaced (which I just paid off) So that's a thing I can do now that I couldn't before.

So I haven't posted here in like two years.  I had just left a job that I liked ok but was fed up with.  I'd been talked into leaving to take antoher job, the subject of which was that post.  Well, long story short.  It was a nightmare right from the getgo. I was trying my best to be positive in that post, because at that point, I really believed that it would get better once I had everyone trained. Trouble is, I was hired for my experience and expertise, and those that hired me were pretty much ignoring everything I told them about how to run a delivery service.  They actually expected to be able to run the service as a 100% separate entity from the rest of the restaurant.  Not possible.  Not even close.  Especially not just starting out.  The job lasted about 3-4 months, and then they decided to can the whole operation and lay everyone off.

I would have filed unemployment, and I would have gotten it, but we were in the middle of buying a house right at that time. At first I thought we'd have to put that on hold, but after I talked to my Mortgage Broker, he said that it was not as big of a problem as I had expected it to be. He said to keep looking (we were already pre approved) and that as long as I had a comparable job by my closing date, all would be well. So I went back to the previous job.  I didn't like it. I didn't like the location. I didn't like the manager, because she failed to respect my faith as my previous manager had.  But I was working, we'd found a house we loved and I just pushed through it until closing day.  Whew... We closed on the house in April of 2015.

Day after Closing day, I applied for a Delivery job at Walgreens.  Well, I got a call the very next day. Not for the Delivery Job, but for a customer service job. I went ahead and interviewed. I had my doubts, but I liked everyone I talked to. The pay was almost as much as I'd made at the job I'd been laid off from. Not as much as I'd made at Larosa's once you counted in tips, but it was a steady predictable amount.  I was guaranteed at or above the number of hours I needed to make, and promised that my faith would be respected and nobody would suddenly decide that I needed to remove all my faith rings.

So anyway, I've been with Walgreens almost two years now.  I really do like the company.  I mean, no job is perfect. Usually if there is no bitch at work, the bitch is you. LOL.  But generally speaking, it's a super pleasant atmosphere. Nothing like you'd expect in most retail jobs.  In about August of last year, a position came open as a Beauty Consultant, and after talking to my boss about the qualifications, she encouraged me to apply for it. I did, and interviewed the following week.  Apparently I won the interview, because when I got the call back, I was told that after we all left from the interview that they'd all been in such a good mood after chatting with me, so they knew right away that I was the one they wanted, but they had to do their due diligence and finish the interview process with the other applicants.  So YAY!  I got promoted.  Got a raise of about 25%, went to a new store, and I'm the BC there.  All is well.

One of the reasons that I haven't posted here much (among others) is that I just haven't had a decent computer.  I didn't have time either, but really it was my half functioning computer that was the real problem. The mobile app was not doing what I neeeded it to to enjoy my experience here, so that was out too.  I got a new computer this year, since I could afford it. So here I am. Making a post.  We'll see how it goes.  Last time I posted, I felt like there were only two or three people on my friends list still posting, so we'll see.

So now we're three days into delivery going live. Things are going pretty well. I've got one driver that really has a pretty good grip on the job. I'll call him Driver A. Both are decent at delivery but one that is still afraid of the computer, and super shaky answering the phone, while Driver A is already getting a pretty good grasp of it. We finally got him on the phone today to take one order with two people helping him with it. Thankfully, it was someone that I already knew from delivering to them often in another location, and they are very likely to be a regular customer here too. That's good in that they were really patient with him.

I think Driver A is going to do great, and I already think of him as my lead driver. Driver B, I'm not sure how long he's going to last. He's super willing to work, but his restaurant experience is very limited, and he doesn't understand that when he has a question, he can't just jump in and ask the question the instant it occurs to him. He's too chatty, and interrupts a lot when I'm trying to give instructions. I rebuked him a little bit for it today by asking him to wait until I was finished speaking before asking questions.

I started Driver C today, and she's a pretty smart lady with the potential to be a good driver. She comes with some experience from a restaurant I have 7 years with myself, but it's from some time back, before they were computerized. I think she's a little bit of a know it all, in that while she was supposed to be training with one of the servers, instead of following her around like a puppy as I wanted her to so that she could get a refresher on all aspects of service while she was learning the POS, she only wanted to catch up with her whenever she saw that server was about to enter an order. I don't know if that was because she didn't want to follow the server around, or if the server didn't want her following her around. That same server seemed much more attentive when she was teaching me, but that may have been because I am a manager. I put her in a car with Driver A for a couple of trips and then she didn't want to do that any more. She kind of waved of doing any more training. "POS, Driving... I got that. It's nothing." I'm guessing that she assumed that I would just stick her in her car and let her start delivering, but instead, I sent her on home. Tomorrow, she'll start driving and we'll see how well she picked up order entry.

Overall, yesterday and today went much smoother, but business was way different than it was Monday. On D-Day, we got cremated the first two hours and then business pretty much fell away to nothing after that. Both Tuesday and Wednesday, it was pretty dead all morning, then we got a couple of orders a while after noon, and then we started getting pretty busy again, where I needed both drivers on the road with me taking most of the orders. We're having problems getting servers who answer the phone to let us know that there is a delivery order holding. I had a server take an order on paper and tell a customer we'd call her back with her total, and then not bring us the ticket for something like ten minutes. Then we were in the middle of another order, so we couldn't enter it for another five minutes. So while we're entering the order the customer calls back to give the information, is put on hold (while I'm in the middle of another order) but not correctly, so I'm running frantically from phone to phone in the whole (big) restaurant trying to find the phone she is holding on, so I can go pick her up at the delivery terminal of which we have exactly one terminal set up to take delivery orders. I did eventually get all her info and in the mean time, the cook already had her order going, so all was well. Later when it quieted down, I called that customer back to check and see if her order had been correct (and delicious) and she was very happy.

So, the upshot here is that while there are some bumps, we're learning a lot. I got a keyboard on our delivery POS, and that made things exponentially easier. Out in the dining room, we don't need keyboards. You don't have to get a customer's name address, phone number and all that in the dining room. With a new service, we have to get that on almost every single customer. Trying to do that on touch screen only is very time consuming. Lol. Things are smoothing out.

I think I'll have to rethink my schedule for next week though. My drivers are all being really flexible though. The first two have made it clear that they are open to last minute changes mid week for the first couple of weeks until we understand better how our hourly business is going to run. Right now, I'm 100% sure that my labor is COMPLETELY OUT OF HAND. LOL. Once I have a couple weeks trend, I'll know when I really need to schedule my drivers. Right now it's just a guessing game based on my experiences in other restaurants.

PS, I realise that I have not changed my theme. I let my paid account lapse, so I can't change it the way I normally would. Once my last paycheck from my previous job hits the bank tonight I think I'll reup my account so I can change it to fall. I've been using Facebook less and less as it's just a mess. The app doesn't work properly on my phone, and it's been more or less useless to me on the computer for a couple of years, so I only facebook from my phone. I also have stopped reading the multitude of posts from people "so and so shared this". If it's important to me, they can tag me. Pretty much anyone who never actually posts anything they thought of themselves are just off my feed.

You know, I thought I was way behind again on keeping up with my LiveJournal friends. list.  I'm kind of picky in that when I go to read I want to go back in time to the last thing I read  and work my way to the present.  It's a little sketchy if I get too far behind, because LJ doesn't let me go back as many pages as it used to, so I've made an effort not to get more than a few days behind at a time.  I do read all posts, but since the LJ app sucks ass, and ElJay isn't much better, I don't always comment.  So if you didn't see a comment from me, it wasn't because I wasn't interested. 

I'm very annoyed with LiveJournal for shooting down the "+1" idea less than a day after they proposed it just because their vocal "Don't ever change anything EVAR" crowd opposed it. Despite the fact that the initial feedback about it was positive. Despite the fact that they clearly stated an intention to make the feature OPT IN, and giving individual journal owners the option to NOT include it on their Journals, the "Don't ever change anything EVAR" crowd won in less than 24 hours, and they dropped it completely out of the consideration.  I'm so sick of those people because they totally hold LJ back from coming into the present day as far as that.  I don't feel that having the option to acknowledge something someone has said quickly when one doesn't have time to say anything specific, or when they maybe don't really have anything useful to add other than something that says "I hear you", or "I see what you're saying."

cornerofmadness, I think I said that I was happy to hear that you're surgery went well, and that they were able to repair your tendon.  I'm sorry that you're having difficulty with your meds, but hopefully you won't need them too much longer and you'll be healing well.  I can't take any opiods at all. I get told all the time "Well vomiting isn't really an allergic reaction." ok.. maybe not, however, it is my body saying "OH NO YOU DIDN'T @*#$#(&!!!" and there is no point in taking a pain med that I can't keep down. Anyway. Glad things are going well. You are in my thoughts.

evil_little_dog, Congrats on another 8 weeks at your current posting.  I know it's not the best job in the world, but work is good.  Maybe if she knew you were putting in another application, she was like "oh no...." and called the agency to keep you on a little longer. lol.  I am not digging my current job because my schedule is constantly in chaos, and I have no time for anything AGAIN. However, in my good news on that front, A couple of weeks ago when my schedule got shredded for the umpteenth time for whatever 'reason', I applied back at the place I used to work (different location) because they a) pay better b) I will have consistent hours c) Day shift! VERY important to me given the amount of evening commitments I have now.  Wednesday I contacted the shift manager to check on that app and she asked when I could come in for an interview. I told her, but then a couple of days later, she told me that I didn't need to interview. The manager wanted to hire me just on her sayso because we'd worked together before and we'd be working togther again here doing the same thing, just a different company.  Anyway, so they are pretty sure that they're loosing their day shift driver, and just have to wait the official 3 days for her to be without a vehicle, before they can her, and then I can give my notice where I am.  You are also often in my thoughts.  It was nice to chat with you on YM recently. I miss chatting and playing Rps with you, even if they are just one on one in chat.

ookamikagakusha, I have been enjoying the writing you've been doing and also recent artwork.  You've really improved in both categories.  I've missed talking to you on Y!M the last couple of days, but I know you have a lot going on at the moment. I hope you mommy is doing ok. 

Recently I was asked by someone I play music with casually (i.e. fellow attendees of an open jam session that I started late last fall.) has asked me if I'd be interested in playing with a band that he's playing with that will have pretty regular gigs and before long, some paid work.  So it's more important than ever for me to have my schedule at work solidify. I can't have this chaos any more. I let work cost me my music once, I will never allow it again.

I've been working on Chapter 15 of CTT... I really think it's almost finished.  I just wanted to try to move things forward a bit, but since that meant basically a filler chapter, I'm having trouble ending it.. it just rambles on and on even though it's not that long. I think I might have figured out how to make it end so I can go on to Wednesday though.  So keep your fingers crossed that I can figure this out.  I've also been working on Gaia's Song again. I did some very minor editing of the first three chapters, and tonight most likely will try to do some serious work on Chapter 4 and then I need to really work out the rest of the outline so I can move forward. I feel like I don't have a clear picture of where the story goes after about halfway through. I'm one of those that really needs to know the beginning the middle and the end of a story, and am notorious for NOT knowing how the end comes.  Anyway. My long break is over, so it's time to go back to work.

Oh yes.. and I've lost about 16 pounds. Only 20 more to go. So YAY!

I guess most of you know that my Favorite Job in the World. The one where I went out my door, walked four houses down the street, crossed the street and went in the door at work is no more. On June 10 of 2013, I walked in the door and upstairs to my office and my boss told me that he was closing Architectural Reuse Company forever.

Since then, my job search has been less than stellar. A lot of applications, a lot of not getting calls back, a couple of chats with bosses as turning in applications, and no call back. One formal job interview that resulted from a job fair, which was for a job I really wanted. One call back from that job to tell me that I had not been selected, but that they liked me well enough to hold onto my info in case they did have another opening. Honestly, if that job comes up, I'll be very tempted to quit whatever job I have so that I can take it.

I had a successful phone interview with another company, which has great benefits, and not so stellar pay (but it's close to what I was making before and I had no benefits at all), which the interviewer said put me in the 3rd round, in which I was to schedule my on site interview, and that I should do it before September 23 so they could get me in the class that starts on that day. Man oh man! What a pain that turned out to be. They couldn't tell me when any interviews would be posted, just that I should log in every day between 8 and 10 am and see if any are posted, and to make sure I checked often, because if they were, they would be gone very quickly. I'm hoping that the starting pay is just during training and I can expect a raise after I go live on the floor.  Even better to get another raise after 90 days. All questions to be asked at the interview.

Well, at last after almost a month trying, I finally was able to schedule myself an appointment for my on site interview. Man, I have never heard of anyone having to do that to get an interview, and I must wonder why they have their managers post times Online and wait to see who has the patience to log in day after day after day to schedule an appointment. Why not just give the managers the top scoring candidates and have them spend that few minutes calling them to schedule? It seems like they risk losing the best candidates, who are likely to move on to other jobs before they can ever schedule an appointment.

Anyway, as long as I succeed at this interview, then I was told that a class is starting on September 23rd, which the phone interviewer indicated he wanted to get me in for. I take that to mean that the on site is just a formality to make sure I'm not an axe murderer or anything. I hope that class isn't already filled up. If it is, then I'll have to probably wait another month to start. 

At any rate, this is my general call out for well wishing for my interview on Wednesday. I'm still in mourning for my nice comfy job at ARC, but I'm ready to have a job again and I admit that immediate benefits will be nice.

So anyway, unfortunately today my boss has pretty much confirmed that ARC is pretty well gone forever. It's a real shame too. It was a good job. Best job I have ever had even though the pay was not stupendous. This will be the second time a job I really liked has disappeared out from under me through no fault of my own. In this case, the blame falls squarely on the City of Dayton for leading us on a merry chase after our contracts. In 2011 we had a roughly 70 house contract and we were able to train and maintain on staff 25 disadvantaged workers, many of the, ex-offenders. Recidivism in Ohio is something like 44%, so there is no question such an enterprise is needed. By training workers not only with physical job skills that they can carry forward into other jobs, we also helped them learn important traits to keeping in good standing with their job. Work ethic, punctuality, compatibility with coworkers, leadership and various other skills. It makes sense to help these people empower themselves to become contributing members of their communities as they reenter society. We thought that Dayton agreed, however it has become clear that they don't care about that at all. In early 2012, Boss was working with our state Attorney General to help develop the Moving Ohio Forward Grant which would use some of the money that the banks had to pay states in settlement for the immense fraud they perpetrated on new home buyers just prior to the collapse of the housing market. Unfortuanately for us, in this case, our Attorney General is a Republican and every city commissioner except our departing Mayor is a Democrat. Oh heaven forfend that we should talk to anyone who is not politically aligned with all the City Commissioners. They got mad and started dragging their feet on our next contract (already promised from NSP3 funding).

There is no lack of work in our field. None at all. Dayton has 7000+ blighted houses that need to be removed. They are being removed. Our particular contract was taken off the table and not voted on several times until in mid 2012, we laid off 25 workers and the last two (myself included) went down to part time hours while we continued to scrounge for work since Dayton had let us run dry and had not delivered their promises to us. ARC was aground. It was almost 2 months before a different contract was offered to us after Boss was chastised for his (OMG) fraternization with a (OMFG) Republican politician at the state level to try to get our company more work so we could train and employ more workers. Imagine that. We wanted to TRAIN and HIRE more WORKERS. Aren't Democrats supposed to be in favor of the little guy? the common man? the downtrodden? the WORKER? Anyway, our paltry contract was for less than a 10th the amount of the previous one. And each house was released like it was a precious commodity. The end result was that we could only bring back one team of workers at a time, and we did not at any time have enough work to bring back a third team. As Summer 2012 crept by, we desperately tried to negotiate with the City about our contracts. They promised us that we needn't worry that they would have work for us. Dayton issued 6 bid packets for 60 houses each. They required such outrageously high performance bonds that only one contractor could qualify, and he because he's so wealthy now that he can self bond, has his own landfill and can hardly even be considered local any more because he's spread through several states. Well Kudos to him for being successful. that's great, but he doesn't help Dayton meet any of the green or social goals they purport to want to meet. So he's not getting ALL the work available in Dayton. We bid on two of the packets, after negotiating about the performance bond.

Anyway, this dragged on and we understand that 4 of the 6 packs of demolitions were awarded. Our two were removed from consideration. permanently apparently. Then the city ran us around for a while, and finally issued a 'request for qualifications' which we spent time and energy working on, and turned in... and waited. And waited. And waited all through the winter into spring they said they were assessing it. Then the funding for our current project ran out and the City pulled two houses off our board, one of them already under permit and starting deconstruction. We laid off 4 of our 9 remaining disadvantaged workers. Each week, Dayton promised that they almost had our next work ready. Then about three weeks before the end, we were told that the only thing holding up the works was 16 properties that we had open permits on. of those 16, about 10 had new homes built on them and the City of Dayton had never closed the permits even when they issued new ones. the other six were either waiting for adequate grass to grow on the new clear lots to be inspected, or were the most recent ones we'd deconstructed and were still in excavation. So I toured them, asked for inspections on the ones that could have them, and gave updates on the rest. By the end of the week, all but 3 had finals. Still no contract. When I came in on Tuesday the 11th, Boss told me that he'd decided to close ARC. At the time, he just said there was no work, which was a true statement.

What I learned a couple days later by reading on esrati.com (David Esrati is a local politician and who owns a marketing firm. He's very outspoken about the problems in our city and he tells it like it is) about his feelings about ARC closing was that while they were stringing us along, the city was awarding work to another contractor by using what is called a 'change order'. It means an existing contract has extra funding added to it and extra work. This company is not in the City of Dayton, and their contract apparently was extended twice by more than twice the contract they strung us along on all summer of 2012, and we just found out about it. There was no reason for Dayton to make us bid on the same set of work over and over and over and still never give us anything while promising they would have work for us. So my question is "What gives Dayton? Why'd you screw your own local contractor and cost the city a total of 28 jobs while giving work to two companies out in the suburbs, not even IN Dayton, one of which did not even have to bid for the work as is supposedly required.

So today was the day that Boss told me he didn't intend to bring ARC back at this point even if the city does come back and tell him to come and sign a contract and here's 60 houses to deconstruct this year. I think he's lost heart, and I don't blame him. It's a real crappy situation and Dayton treated a very decent man trying to do something good in the world and an extremely shoddy way. Meanwhile, I have no job, and I really liked my job. I'm really quite angry about this. I want to march down to city hall and have a few sharp words with some people. people who pretty much lied in MY face as well, since the last two visits for consultations were made by ME as I tried to get all the information together for the Community Development Block Grant that we were also trying to get so that we could offer better pay to our workers, but which Boss never turned in, because he became convinced that we wouldn't get any work to use the money one and it would go to waste. I'm really livid about this and I want to chew some heads. I want to mouth of in the way that Esrati does. I'm going to ask Esrati what I can do to help him the next time he runs for office.

In the mean time, I haven't decided what to do yet. I have unemployment for a while. Last summer I got by on half pay for several months. I can this summer too. I can step up my Mary Kay Business to make more money. I had said that if it became clear that my job was not coming back that I might consider going back to school for real. Full time, and have that be my job. I'm pretty much on the verge of making that decision now. I can get started with school while I'm not working and still have an income. My grants will cover my classes and then some extra most quarters. So I'd be pretty well set until my unemployment runs out. Then I can decide if I want to hack pizza or something while I'm in school, or if I want to go ahead and go the student loans route and take out enough to live on too. I don't have to cross that bridge yet. I just need to decide what I want to do, and what path of studies to take. Linguistics, or prosthetics? Or architecture? I was very interested in architecture in high school. I loved drafting classes, but I know I applied a lot of my drafting knowledge to design artificial limb structures. I wanted to find ways to make them move in the most natural way possible. Back then, the technology wasn't really there to make them work in that complex way, but now? Yah... now the technology is moving. It's interesting. I don't really have to declare right away either. I'll still need a language, so I can study both at the same time while i get my gen eds out of the way. I think I'd better fill out my Fasfa pretty soon though. I don't know the deadline date for this year.

Wow, this took forever to whine about. I better go to bed. *grumble* Unemployed and STILL don't have enough damned hours in my day!

Oh I did forget thought that I'm working out a schedule, and that I'm going to get back to writing while i have time to get my brain back on it. I have had Chasing the Trail chapter 15 open and have worked on it. Right now I'm looking for a reference. If anyone remembers what chapter it was that Winry promised Ed he could get up and use his crutch once he showed her he was going to be able to do it (or something like that) I'd appreciate knowing, as I'm trying to find it.

Anyway, night all.

For the time being anyway. I've been weighing my options and reasons and the reasons to stop for now by so far outweigh the reasons to continue struggling forward that I can't even find a pro school reason right now. These are in no order of importance... in fact, the last things might weigh the heaviest right now because some of them are the reasons for the first things.

1. I don't know what the hell I am doing, and I'm now way to scattered to figure it out. I wrote a letter to wright state asking them for guidance in my field of study and got a very generic email back that suggested that I could pick from any of a variety of courses they offered, with no suggestion what would make me most employable in the field I wish to enter, nor even a suggestion of where to look. I'm thinking that I'm not going to transfer to Wright State even forewarned as I am by the horror stories I have heard from some other people I have known who attended, even graduated and found themselves unemployable because of the mismanagement of their studies by the school.
2. I am exhausted to the point of illness. Pardon the pun here, but I'm really sick of being ill. I am missing work because I'm so stressed out it makes me ill. I have a good job an I am ruining my chances to move up in that job. It is often all I can do to get myself out the door to go to work, much less continue on to class straight from work. I have since winter quarter started dropped from being the number one agent in my entire call center to 59th. That's unacceptable. I have been in the top 20 ever since I went on production.
3. I'm frustrated. I'm very very frustrated. I'm spread too thin and can't do well at anything right now. When get angry about trying to force myself to go to class, something is wrong. Don't even speak of trying to find time to do homework when I can still brain at the end of the day.
4. The materials provided for my online (which I did not want to take online but which was ONLY available online) class are a joke. Seriously. The quizzes have nothing to do with the materials, then after I go and look up all the quiz questions, (most of which are not directly in the book) the Pretest has little or nothing to do with the quiz for any module it covers. Even after taking the Pretest (read: practice test) multiple times to get the widest sample of questions possible from which to study, generally, if I gather 100 different questions from the pretest and commit them to memory after spending hours researching NOT in my book, but on the web) then on the actual test of 50 questions, less than half of them were one of the 100 I gathered from multiple takings of the pretest. That's not right. It might become right if the teacher were actually interacting with us in any meaningful way, however she is not. The ONLY interaction we get is an email reminder that we're about to hit a deadline for a test, or if we directly question her about something. Sad fact: most of the material that I do find, I find on the websites for other colleges on the same subject right there open to the public for viewing.
5. I have not written anything of note outside of my English class since I started school. The stuff I wrote in English may have been A++ material, but it wasn't anything special to me, and had no meaning at all. In fact, two of my subjects I wrote in direct opposition to how I actually felt about my subject just to make it a small challenge. People now think I like autumn, and that I think it's right that Pluto is no longer a planet. Writing is very important to me. I have wanted to work on Chasing the Trail (yes I know it's fanfiction, not serious, but people like it and I want to finish the story) and get Gaias Song back out. A couple of years ago, brokenbrawler, my erstwhile coauthor gave me some very heavy food for thought to digest on that subject. I don't necessarily agree with all of it, but much of it I do. But I have no time to even consider it. At the very least I have got some serious work to do on the opening. I have learned a lot since I wrote that, not the least of which is that cutting out 90% of the scene setting ruined the opening for me. At the same time, I need to bring Daniel into the story more actively. As it stands, he's to sweet and gentle. No I mean he is sweet and gentle, but Daniel is also far more driven than he comes off and I need to demonstrate that right away, so that what he shows on the exterior doesn't soften him too much. I'd also like to work on A Switching Tale. I had loads of fun with that during Nano 2008 and haven't looked at it since.
6. I have no social time at all. If I AM free on a day when someone else is, either I'm too tired, or too depressed to do anything about it. This in an of itself is highly depressing. I'm a very social being, hurt a lot recently by one of my oldest friends who has once again pushed me to the side in favor or newer more interesting friends, so that now I am only contacted occasionally when something is wanted or needed, or when guilt requires it. I'm not sure when I became so uninteresting anyway. I think she's forgotten who I am. My other friends? We used to have coffee pretty regularly at the very least, but not any more. Though I hear things that indicate that some people are having gatherings, I don't hear about them usually until after the fact, probably because it seems like I'm always going to say no, so they don't ask. That in and of itself saddens me.
7. I have no time for my music. NONE... the most I have picked up any instrument in the last 6 months is for some very brief tootling on one of my flutes. Anyone who knows me knows how important my music is to me, even if it's just playing with some friends, or playing by myself. I want to relearn the violin. I plan to buy one so I can. I want to have time to actually practice, maybe visit my friend composer2005 sometimes and play with her, get a pointer to remind me of what I once knew, since she is a teacher now. Maybe I can even pay her for a random lesson once in a while.
8. Ohio failing to produce OIG grants for this school year made it impossible for me to consider maybe talking to my boss about working part time while I'm in school and full time when I'm not. Our call center manager is actually pretty cool about working with people in situations like this, but I have no room to even think about it because there was no OIG money this year. Why? because Ohio failed to produce a budget. I rarely slam my own state because generally speaking I do love my state and am genuinely hurt when I hear other people deride it so harshly, but this complete failure at a time when more and more people are going back to school due to the economy was a real big fail for Ohio.
9. I have no time for physical activity. This makes me ill and depressed. I got a new bike in 2008 which I really loved. We had no summer to speak of so I hardly got to ride it. Then in fall when the weather did straighten up a bit, every day that it was warm and sunny enough to ride I had class, and by the time I was out of class, it was too late to ride, and certainly nobody else was going to want to go. I 100% plan to buy that new Trek FX 7.2 I was lusting over a few days ago. that's 100% decided now. What I do with the other bike, is not decided yet. I'll either keep it or sell it for $400 which is a fair price for a 2008 that cost $550 and only has about 300 miles on it. Knowing that I'm definitely going to buy that red bike, I am not going to spend the entire riding season cooped up inside.
10. I am gaining weight due to stress. Or at the very least, I have gained weight and am struggling to keep from gaining more, which I can't do without physical activity, while stressed out to the max. Stress freaks out my blood sugar and makes it extremely hard to diet. This is 100% unacceptable. I want to bring my bike upstairs and put it on the trainer. right now that's pointless because I don't have time to spend an hour or two on the bike watching a movie when I get home, or by the time I get home I'm too drained (or at present ill) to bother even though I know it would help me.

So there's 10 good reasons. At the moment, I can't even think of a reason to continue at this time other than that I really hate failure, and this feels like a failure to me. A failure to complete something I set out to do. However, having said that, I still mean to complete it, but not until I actually know how to do it, and actually have the time and energy to devote to it. Right now, I need to get out of this house, I need to get it sold or make the very very sad decision to abandon it and let them foreclose, and I need to get my own financial situation into a better recovery. So as much as it makes me weep with disappointment, I think it's the best choice I can make right now. I think I have to make the choice NOW while I can withdraw gracefully with W's and go back to it later when I'm more prepared. The 26th is the last day I can do it. So today I made the choice. I'm no longer a student. At least for the time being. I need to regroup.

I know I haven't talked about it much but so far the new job is going fine. To be honest, I'm a little leery about blogging my job stuff, since I never know who might read it. That's the reason when I posted about the job in the first place I didn't say the name of the company or the name of the contract, and for anyone who does know, I'd appreciate if you didn't either.

As far as the job goes, for the moment thought there isn't much to tell. We have a 5 week training course to complete and then "The Big Test". So after 4 and a half weeks of training, we did our final assessment today (never mind we still have some things to cover yet) and then after this week, 4 weeks of transitional training to do after we're done. I *think* our schedule will change slightly though, from 7 am to 8am start time, which is fine by me. It'll feel like I got to sleep in for at least a week before I get used to it. It sure will be nice to be able to stay up until 11 again. This 10pm bedtime is for the birds I have to tell you! It makes it hard to stay up or sleep in on the weekends when I can. You have no idea (or maybe you do) how annoying it is to wake up at 9 am on a Saturday morning and be unable to go to sleep.

Anyway, back to "The Big Test" I wasn't particularly worried about the test in the first place. I don't usually get test anxiety. I don't freak out if I don't get a perfect score, though it's nice. Right now I guess I'm about the top of my class. Until yesterday, I had 100% on all my small assessments. Yesterday I made up a test I missed last Friday because I went home sick for three hours. Unfortunately I DID miss one of those questions. I learned later that that question, I answered correctly according to our documentation, but that the test doesn't know the answer has changed. Apparently had I been there to take the test with the rest of the class, I would have been given the answer along with the rest of the class, but I wasn't so I missed it and scored a 90% on that one.

Anyway, so everyone spent the morning winding up or revving up for the test we knew we were going to spend the rest of the day after lunch taking. As I said, I wasn't particularly worried about it. I felt I knew how to find the answers. See .. .the test isn't so much a test of remembering every detail, but of knowing how to access your tools to find the information you need as you work with a customer. The information can change from day to day, so the emphasis is on making sure you're using your tools correctly and getting the information out of the system rather than your brain. I can do that. I had good confidence in that, so I wasn't worried. I knew I would pass easily, and in fact finished my test before the majority of the class. I think maybe 7 or 8 had signed the score card before I did, and (don't take this as bragging, ne? I'm not. It's just an observation, and in fact some of them if they had taken just a bit more time might have matched me too) I scored higher than any of them.

What did surprise me was when I clicked the 'finish' button and my score loaded.

100%

So I guess they might keep me on for transitional training now. ^_^ This is a good thing.

This is starting to look much better now. It still needs a bit of tweaking here and there, but these are little things that *I* notice that probably nobody else will even see. I hit upon the idea of skywriting for the title only after I came up with the idea for the little plane with the semi transparent banner for the titles. I really like that too btw. It really works for me. I had to do the clouds at least four times before I made some I could stand. I need to reset my icon set. the gold does not match. I'll do that tomorrow though.

I know I've been behind responding to comments and not commenting so much on other people's stuff. Here are a couple of shoutouts.

littlechemist01 I did get your email. I still have it, I've just been too busy to respond when I think of it or when I don't think of it when I have time.

composer99 I responded to your message last week, but I think you have not been on.

All you people who want cold summers... please don't live here where it's supposed to be warm. *raspberries*

I know a lot of you want updates on the new job. I just haven't had time. I'm still not used to my new schedule so as soon as I'm ready to settle down here with the computer it's bedtime (wail). Just in brief, training is going well. I like what I'm hearing about the company and the contract in particular. Our contract in particular is very into giving very good customer service and not cutting corners or just interested in call volume. That's very good. We'll see how it goes once I'm on the floor, but so far so good. The environment in the classroom is a little bit like a can of sardines, but the call room floor is actually quite nice, and individual work areas are fairly good sized and nicely arranged with corner cubicles instead of straight desks (i.e. L shaped desks with the work space arranged so that we're facing the corner of the cubical. That will cut down on ambient noise as those walls catch sound and damp it into the corners. We won't have set desks. There is a clean desk policy, which means nothing goes on the desk except the stuff that is already there. So it's a little generic, but it's a call center. That's to be expected. When I leave, someone else takes over my desk. I don't want them leaving crap on my desk, and they don't want me leaving crap on their desk. It's even. I don't want to get into too much detail for the simple sake of company privacy and so on. But suffice it to say that things are going fine.

I had planned to pay my mortgage with my first check from the new job. (We get paid semi monthly) that would have got it paid early, but I decided I'd better just wait and pay it on the 24th. I'll use this coming check to finish catching up on bills. I've only got two... three... and then everything is okay again, so I can catch up these three bills, then pay the mortgage a few days late, and then on the 9th I can pay the mortgage again, and all will be well. Phew. By that time I'll be on the call floor and hopefully besides my regular pay, I'll be making commissions. That was a very nice surprise to learn that we would get commissions on calls that we make a sale, or upgrade on. It's a nice incentive, but often a customer is calling for that purpose anyway, so it's just an added bonus to get a little something extra for doing my job.

Went to see the fireworks in Fairborn. It had been raining on and off all day, so I didn't really feel much like going down to West Carrollton where we usually view them, and walk all that way in the rain and stand out in the rain or sit on the wet levee... so we just went to Community park. The show wasn't as good as the one in West Carrollton.. but it was pretty decent. Why the hell is the pool closed though? There was no water in it. What's up with that crap? Now that I get off work early enough to actually go the pool is closed? DaMnIT! Not like it's been warm enough to go swimming, but I can hope that maybe I might eventually get some summer here.

Time for bed now. Wow is it ever past my bedtime.

So Yesterday, I reminded [[that place I applied]] that I'd applied for a job doing customer service for [[the company they do customer service for]], and was asked to come in and interview today. It was pretty obvious really, by the time I was halfway through the interveiw process that she intended to hire me. I start June 15 for the training classes. 7am to 3:30pm... so whew... early start, but then again, I'll have a good chunk of day left at the end of the day to do... STUFF... Which'll be nice. And no weekends for 5 weeks. Then I think my normal schedule may include one weekend day. I'm not sure yet. It may be one weekend day or it may be one weekend day on rotation. I'm sure I'll find out the details once I get started. Since I'm an early hire, it looks like I can pretty much call my schedule, so though I gave my availability as pretty much 8am to 12am daily, when I mentioned to the interviewer (once I had it in so many words that I had the job) that I would prefer the morning shift, she asked me to mark out my availability to be off by 6 each day. which is still pretty open availability, but prevents me from being stuck on nights after training is done. Once I get done with training, I may actually decide I like working early early and being off early early. I don't know. We'll see. I'm excited, but also a little nervous.

phoenixfyre1 applied there after I did, when I told her they were definitely hiring and that she ought to go apply. She did, and interviewed later in the day and also was hired as I knew she would be. She's probably a better more reliable worker than I am. I don't think they'll be sorry, and she's not someone who is going to walk out over something petty either, and that's what they need. We start the same day, and I'm pretty sure we're in the same training class. So I'll know someone there, and maybe I won't have to go to lunch by myself all the time like I did at the last place. That was how I knew I wasn't going to last at C&E... nobody ever suggested I go to lunch with them, and when I asked someone if they wanted to, they were always going with other people (and never suggested "Why don't you come along with us?" You know? you just know that you don't fit in when it's like that.

Anyway. Go me. Anyone looking for a job. Go get one. Now. Dress yourself up, walk in and say I want a job. Please give me one. ANY job pays more than $0. I have never accepted the idea that when someone is out of work and looking, that they won't accept a job because it doesn't pay enough. Any pay is more than no pay. It's just that simple.

Hey, why the hell is it so hard to get a male Spring Dragon? I have bred several eggs and picked up several and so far I have had I think 5 females and no males. I currently have three females because that gives me more breeding stock to try to get more spring eggs, but geeze... *rolls eyes*

Anyway, in the process, here is what I have currently.

Realizing that I only had a female Green Dragon I thought I ought to aim for a Male. So I Bred her with Autumnal Lochlem. Well I didn't get a green egg. I got another spring egg. So maybe this one can be a male.

Oysoya Verdant

+

Autumnal Lochlem

=

I tried a couple of other breedings and had dragons snub each other, so I went to the cave to get more.

	I did pick up a green egg off the abandoned list. Not like they're hard to find anyway.
	I tried to breed another Frill dragon, but apparently SHE didn't like Rojas D'Artagnon. Shocking. Who the hell doesn't like Rojas D'Artgnon? All the girls just love him. Doesn't matter, I got one off the floor of the cave.
	I got one I haven't ever seen before, so go me. Maybe I'll actually get to see MY dragon before I see what it looks like because someone else already had one that grew up. If you have one please let me keep my illusion of uniqueness for now.

PS... I have a job interview tomorrow morning before work.

And all it's weirdo stuff....

And so I went there today. You know, I just kind of march through there looking to see if there's anything of any interest. There are certain areas that I particularly frequent. Right now there are 4 steel crochet hooks. I go and look in that cannister every time to see if there are any red ones because I am trying to get all my hooks red. Yesterday at Joann, I managed to land myself a Red G. So now I'm 6 red out of 10. I don't need the steel ones, but it's funny to see that one of them is stamped on the thumb rest with the Boye device, and also on the other side the size, and "15¢" The two hooks are used obviously, probably pretty old if one of them says 15¢. But they're wrapped together and have a price tag of 99¢ *snort* I'm starting to wonder at the guy who prices this stuff, if he has any sense sometimes. I wonder if they ever think about why they might have so much trouble getting some things to move. Some stuff is priced great. Some other stuff not so much. I don't mind paying 99¢ for an aluminum hook if it's the right color though. I have picked up some pretty good yarns out of the bins up there too, which is really cool. The most recent was three little balls of this two strand light weight yarn in a sort of lavender. I'm told it is for making lace. We'll see. I haven't started playing with it yet. I was in the middle of two other projects, one of which is a cover for my ratty brown chair.

Now the other area I check through each time is the furniture department. This is how I chanced upon my mauve chair which set me back $75. Not bad considering that it's in nearly perfect condition. Obviously it was in some old ladies nice sitting room and almost never sat in. It doesn't even have a butt groove to speak of.. but I'm working on that. And it matches all this other mauve stuff in my living room. I'm thinking I need to paint a mauvey dusty purple accent wall. Well anyway, in the process of marching through the furniture department, what do I spy with my little eyes but a Multivox keyboard stand. Freaking Awesome. Ok... not like Multivox is a well know, or even well respected brand, but you know what? it's a keyboard stand. It's MY keyboard stand now, and it oly cost me $10. (why? because the guy who thinks it's appropriate to price a 15¢ steel crochet hook at 99¢ as long as it's paired with another one one size up, didn't know that an adjustable professional studio keyboard stand would normally cost more than $10. It's all good. It fits my ESQ-1 perfectly.. at least the short one. The other one is about 4 inches longer. I'm not sure it'll fit, but that's okay, it fits one of them. I'll keep my eyes open for an add on to mount the other one over it. Now I just need to find an amplifier that won't cost me a fortune.

Next: I went down to Muffler Brothers (they are my mechanic) and got a quote and made an appointment to have the CV joint replaced, and the combo switch because I'm tired of having to fiddle with the light switch to get the lights to come on and have them go off and have to fiddle with it again when I'm driving in the middle of the night. (Front lights are no problem, but the rear lights will go off, and then I have to finagle it.) and then went up to Auto Zone and ordered the part for that. So the part may arrive in time for me to put the car in the shop on Monday. I hope. If not then It'll have to wait until next week I guess, or I can ride my bike to work if the weather is decent. If I could find the wire that i unplugged in the Camry, I could just drive that car for a couple of days. I guess cheapcarnival's friend is going to try to track it down for us. So maybe by the time the weekend is over it'll work again. There is nothing wrong with that car, just I unplugged something accidentally when I changed the battery, and can't find it. I may need to get new leads for it.

My Boss is back from vacation. We had a nice quiet week without her, and got a lot accomplished in getting the store in order. Now that she's back, countermanding all the shift managers orders (and yes.. I did catch her doing this when I asked my driver to do something, she went behind my back told her not to.) I doubt if anything will get done any more. I told her I'm going to start burning some vacation days, because I have 2 weeks to kill and I'm not NOT taking them all as whole weeks. I don't have to. I asked our DM and she told me I can ues then one at a time if I want. So if I really wanted, I could just have the next fourteen weeks as three day weekends. (not that I will, but I'm just saying) so I told her once Justin is back from his, I'll probably blow two of my days and take a 4 days weekend. I will have to go visit someone or have someone visit me.

You are a poor as dirt and I know it. You are my regular customer and I know it is also a special treat when you can scrounge enough to come in and have a little pizza. Despite that, you tipped me two dollars today, and made sure everyone else in the dining room saw you do it. I believe you did that to make a point to some other people who were being pretty rude and impatient when we were extremely busy because of the playoff games coming on. Thank you.

There seems to be a big mouse in my office. I think I have seen it run by along the outside wall twice now.

Yes... I am about a week behind right now on LJ entries... Some stuff, I just won't get a chance to comment on. I'm not ignoring you people, but as most of you know, I've been pretty ill, my mom has been in the hospital, and my dad is at Hospice to die. Not a great week. Mommy is home now... and not happy that she now has a pill she has to take. You should have heard the tone of voice when she said "I have to take it twice a day for the rest of my life." Well, I don't know as that's necessarily true. It'd be nice if chemical doctors would give some serious looks at real cure based treatments like cayenne for ulcers, rather than just giving a pill. That makes the pharmaceutical companies really happy of course, to have her on a pill forever... It doesn't make Mommy happy, and may not be necessary. I'll talk to Owa about it, and then get Mommy to let me go to an appointment with her so we can talk about that. I know that Mommy is not narrow minded when it comes to natural medicine. She's an old country girl, so she's rather take a natural cure until the problem is solved rather than a chemical treatment for the rest of her life that does nothing to actually address the issue. Naysayers? I had ulcers. Now I don't. I do know what I'm talking about here.

I have a job interview in the morning for a job I don't think I want. In fact, I'm thinking that I'll call in the morning and apologize for wasting the time they set aside for the interview, and just go to work. It feels like the right thing to do. Right now I have two jobs, one which I like a lot, and one which I hate a lot. The one I hate I now believe has irreversibly damaged my hearing, and I doubt very seriously I can even use workers compensation to get treatment for what is left of it. The one I like, I think has the potential to have me out of the one I hate within a couple more months, and if I need to I can get a part time job somewhere a couple afternoons a week to pick up the slack once my morning boss can get me up to about 20 hours a week there, given as I make about twice as much there as at the job I hate. Working 20 hours a week for Matt is really only about twice what I am now. So we're not talking that far away. Matt likes my work, often expresses his appreciation for my way of doing things, and that's a big deal to me after working for years without ever having any acknowledgment that I was doing anything right or anything. C&E was wonderful for making me feel like I was an outcast, misfit, that must not be doing anything right... including apparently parking my car too close to someone else who "have nice cars" and don't want me parking so close to them. *rolls eyes* I'm better off out of there... and really, this interview in the morning, I'm really afraid of getting into another situation like that, which I just do not want. I'd rather stay in my comfort zone right now. Not to mention that with my Dad on his deathbed... well... he is... and it may not be the best time to start a new job. Both my current employers know the situation, and are prepared for me to have to take at least a couple of days off when the time comes. For all that I hate the job, Otha has been very patient with me when I have had to take time off myself due to what is probably largely a stress induced or at the very least a stress worsened illness. I'm going to talk to her about maybe scheduling me off on Wednesdays at least for 4 or 5 weeks just to give me a little extra break in the middle of the week so that I don't end up exhausted again.

Hmm.. I made a Trilly Skin. I'll post separate for that. I want a bath first. Then I'll post a link and do another desktop snapshot for everyone to see. ^_^

Thanks to everyone who commented with congrats and stuff on the Job I got working for the furnace man. Sorry I didn't respond individually there, but you know... kind of busy hahaha... but anyway, so far things are going very well. My boss is a pleasant person to work for. It's funny because he calls people and gives his name, and then says "I'm the Furnace Man." He repeats himself... forgets sometimes when he's already showed me how he wants something done, but that's ok. The reason I'm there in the first place is because he's just a bit of a scatter brain. So once I know how to do everything he needs done, he won't have to worry about stupid office stuff any more... and once that's accomplished he can get more work done fixing things, which means more money coming in and more hours for me. In the mean time, I'm using the business half of my degree really for the first time in at least 10 years other than for my own personal business. So that's kind of nice to put my knowledge to use.

Unlike my last office job, I feel very comfortable and at ease in my office, and not constantly like I'm being judged or looked down on. That's very much a relief, and it was one of the things that we talked about in the interview. I mean the fact that I'm more comfortable working in a blue collar office where people are just real. So far so good. I like it. I feel comfortable. I billed $1100 worth of invoices today. So earning my keep. ^__^

In other news... the house was shown twice last week. One of the realtors complained that my house is 'cluttered' and my attitude is pretty much. "Please excuse me for living in my house while you are looking at it." Those people really couldn't have been very interested in the first place if they were too busy looking at clutter to look at the house. This was the one that the agent scheduled the appointment for 9 am on a Saturday morning, and then had the audacity having got me up that early on a Saturday, to arrive EARLY while I was still dressing. I made him wait outside. Anyway, the house was shown this afternoon on NO notice while I was at work... and I told the agent, You realise this means that I didn't wipe down my stove, that I left dishes in the sink (something I rarely ever do) I haven't vacuumed yet, and the spare room's closet is blocked off with a big monitor I bought sitting in front of it. She said she'd make sure the agent knew that. hee. Well you never know. Maybe those people, having given no notice whill see the house for what it is. A great first home for a small family just starting out.

Welp... my furnace is out.. isn't that great? It's just what I needed right now. Also, will wonders never cease... every possible receipt in the world is in my house book.. oh... all except for the quote from the furnace company on my new furnace that was installed in 2003... which I know has a 1 yr labor warranty, 5 year parts and 20 year heat exchanger.... The guy says he's sure it's a 20 year heat exchanger, but that usually parts are one year... so unless I can find that quote and receipt wherever it is besides where it BELONGS... I will have to pay for parts too... and I had my paycheck, and the rent my roommate paid me this week (finally) and that totals about $280. This better not cost me all of this. >_<

P.S. I really can't believe that I don't have a tag that says "crap". Now I do. Going to bed now.. will miss at least half a day of work for this one... AGAIN with the missing MONDAY.... >_< WTF WORLD!?

Going to go look for my receipt in the only other place it could possibly be... then bundle up and go to bed.

( People who suckCollapse )
( People who Don'tCollapse )

( One more little thingCollapse )

( The following is a work related rant if you don't give a rats ass, just walk on by. I'm not being very nice anyway.Collapse )