Is there life on Mars?

Pfft

katsuko — Fri, 10 Feb 2017 03:05:55 GMT

This is a day that was long. Work felt like it was forever, mainly because one of my colleagues last night, rather than call the phone numbers provided for customers who hadn't picked up their full-serve area merch opted to instead mark everything as Not Handed Out and set everything to get sent back to stock. This included a kitchen that was set on three flat carts and two pallets, approximately three hundred pieces, as well as a merged order that sat on four flat carts. The only things that could have just gone back to stock were the single piece and the wardrobe boxes that didn't have contact information, but.

So I spent a good chunk of the day dodging around all these carts before saying "fuck it" at noon and moving the six flat carts that were not kitchen stuff back to sit by the bins at least until someone who had more authority than I do arrived. Which was at 5, with me leaving at 5:30. And he was not happy, given that he'd told the aforementioned colleague to not do shit like that in case it was a situation wherein the customers had to come back later; with the kitchen, that was exactly what happened, and he said he hadn't received any calls yesterday asking so. When I left, my coworker was calling the other customer who'd left contact info to see if it was the same situation.

Then I got to brave the "wonders" of the Atlantic Station Shuttle... or not, since the fucker blew right by me when I was no more than a couple hundred feet from the stop. So I just walked to the train station instead. It took me fifteen minutes, but I did it for two reasons: one, it's good exercise and two, it was too fucking cold to sit outside and wait, not moving, for fifteen minutes to wait for the next shuttle to come by. I made it obviously, paid for the train and bus trips, and headed down just in time to get the train to Lindbergh. Got to Lindbergh, got on the Number 5, and made it to the restaurant by 7.

Once there, I helped get the catering stuff situated for tomorrow morning - I'll finish the remaining bits up tomorrow, there's no way in hell I'm making 80 Parmesan cups only to have them be gone in the morning because the to-go kid took them for his use - and then just kinda chilled until Yami was released shortly before 9. We got home in good time, and now Yami is finishing up our gumbo for dinner.

And the only writing I got done today was this post. I'm gonna just roll with this as my words for today, eat dinner, and probably crash in a bit. Later.

Crossposted from DreamWidth. Click here to see other replies to this post.

#365K365days Day 7

katsuko — Sun, 08 Jan 2017 02:42:08 GMT

So, worked on a few different stories today for my word count goals.

January 7
First Days (Part of Wicked Ones): 475 new words
Frustration and Comfort (Part of Trinity): 1,187 words

Total count for the year is now standing at 8,380 words. Nice little bit of a buffer.

As for work and the weather, I didn't make it in today because the car was completely frozen up; apparently the wet froze overnight and I wasn't able to get the doors to open until 3 in the afternoon. I was supposed to be in at 1, but that's okay because the store closed at 5. Tomorrow, however, I was scheduled to be in at 9:45 to work until 4:30. I got a call around 6 saying that the store isn't opening until noon and to come in at 11:45 instead.

So, yeah. What a weekend!

Crossposted from DreamWidth. Click here to see other replies to this post.

#365K365days Day 6

katsuko — Sat, 07 Jan 2017 05:18:21 GMT

And now, the daily word count update!

January 6
Home (part of Shelter): 959 words

That puts my official count at 6,718. Not as high as I'd like it to be, but still a bit of a buffer.

Crossposted from DreamWidth. Click here to see other replies to this post.

Happy New Year

katsuko — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 04:33:42 GMT

It's a day late, but I'd like to wish anyone whose still sticking around for updates a bright and happy new year.

Here's hoping that 2017 doesn't decide to outdo 2016 with high-profile deaths...

Crossposted from DreamWidth. Click here to see other replies to this post.

Non-locked Post - Regarding Moving

katsuko — Thu, 28 Jan 2016 02:44:30 GMT

So, anyone who follows my Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr accounts probably knows by now that I am in the process of being evicted from the apartment complex in Decatur where I live for another three days. Those folks also probably know that we have found a new place to live in Roswell, which is where we are moving in three days' time.

What you may not be aware of, however, is that we have a couple of GoFundMe sites set up to aid with moving expenses and February rent.

So please, help out by either offering a donation or boosting the signal. The initial New Home page is located here, and the Move-In Expenses site is located here.

Crossposted from DreamWidth. Click here to see other replies to this post.

Ramble on

katsuko — Sun, 25 Jan 2015 20:34:48 GMT

For those who may remember me posting a quick little, for-me-really knitting reference last year sometime, I've since completed the initial mitts. Sadly, I never did get a thumb sleeve done for them, but apollymi seems to love them anyway.

I have since knitted a pair of shorter mitts using k2p1 ribbing at top and bottom with moss stitch for the main body that are slated to go to my baby sister sooner rather than later, a pair of six-inch mitts done in mainly k1p2 ribbing with a one-inch section of seed stitch for myself, and am in the process of making a second pair of the seed stitch mitts for Yami. Mind you, I am still in the stage of making things for myself, friends, and family as I try to get not-sucky at this because I have a goal.

That goal is to set up my Etsy shop to sell hand-knitted items, and I want to not sell shoddy work.

And that, my lovelies, is my ramble for today.

Crossposted from DreamWidth. Click here to see other replies to this post.

The bitch is back

katsuko — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 02:02:23 GMT

So, yeah. I'm gonna make the valid attempt to actually make some goddamn posts this year. The goal is not a daily post (because I'm too flaky for that to last for more than a month tops), but at least one weekly update. So here goes with that.

Since my last post, there have been... shakeups at Mirko. In which I mean the owner got pissy over a miscommunication and fired the store's GM, then worked his schedule for over two weeks, hired a new GM who has just started as of Thursday in our shop, and then hired back the old GM as a backup manager/server.

In the same span of time, he got pissy over apollymi doing double-time work to try and keep things flowing in the areas of expo on food and seating customers and fired her for a grand total of twenty-four hours before Ex-GM/Backup hired her back with Owner's permission. She's now doing hosting five days of the week rather than food running because new GM prefers to have a host every night over a food runner (and will utilize servers who are off the schedule to fill the empty spot, but more on that later) and serving at least one lunch a week. Needless to say, we're both a bit wary on our standing (especially given that during the yami-is-fired-now-she's-not stage, Owner was under the impression that I quit... despite the fact that I wasn't even on the schedule and was there as backup-if-needed-but-seriously-chillin-at-Starbucks) as employees for much longer.

And now, a quick note back to GM's tendency to use off-duty servers as food runners: given that I started as a food runner, I have no problem at all filling in. Actually, I'm on backup for the days I'm not on the schedule just in case any server whose filling in calls out for some reason. However, some of the servers (one in particular who I call B rather than his full name on most days) have been very vocally opposed to it. B even stated - loudly, on Saturday night, as the restaurant was filling up with customers - that he was "hired to be a server, and [he's] not going to be here if not on the schedule to work as a server." GM managed to get J to cover on that night, but it doesn't show good teamwork skills. Hell, L straight up told me on Monday night that she was going to apologize to Li for any time she may have grabbed a plate from the window without mentioning it to the food runner, because she now has first-hand experience of just how goddamn frustrating it is to not know if food has gone out yet or not.

So... needless to say, I can handle change but what I cannot handle is change that arrives with so much goddamn, unnecessary strife. During the twenty-four hours of "what the fuck is wrong with Owner today," Li and I had talked with L regarding our desire to find other employment. L knew of a local restaurant hiring pretty much everything for front of house: servers and hosts especially. So we went over there today (initially planned as an outing last week, but there were circumstances that kept it from happening) and filled out a couple of applications. Two different managers spoke with us while we were there, so here's hoping something positive comes of this.

As for other issues, I don't feel much like talking on 'em at the moment. I just needed to get some of this out, and I'm pretty okay with that.

Crossposted from DreamWidth. Click here to see other replies to this post.

Year in Review 2014

katsuko — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 16:54:33 GMT

This one's gonna be a bit scant, as I realize that I've spent more time posting things on my Tumblr page than here on DreamWidth this year. Probably how I didn't realize my paid account had expired, too. Oops. Promise to do better next year.

Go to your Calendar and find the first entry for each month of 2012. Post the first line of it in your journal, and that's your "Year In Review".

Year in Review

January
Happy 2014!

February

March
So... anyone whose been wondering if I fell off the face of the earth, wonder no more (and terribly sorry to disappoint those who had hoped that the case. I still live, bitches!).

April
So, day one of Camp NaNo commences... and as per usual with my brain here of late I have exactly fuck all so far as words or thoughts or anything substantial go.

May
So, yeah.

June
So, yeah.
(Note: This is not a typo. I literally have the first entry for two different months beginning with the same two words. This is why I suck at writing, lol.)

July

August

September
So, yeah, apparently I'm still breathing and all.

October

November

December
This one's gonna be a bit scant, as I realize that I've spent more time posting things on my Tumblr page than here on DreamWidth this year.

So... that was terribly pathetic. Meaning that I'm about to do the same thing again but with my Tumblr posts!

For those unfamiliar with the formating, anything indented on the following means I reblogged from someone else; in the events where it was a long chain I'm only noting the originator of the thread.

Tumblr Edition

January
johanirae:
        When in SHIELD, you land the fucking plane on the first try… OR ELSE.

February
Just tossing this out there?

March
PUPPY!!!

April
HELL YES

May
mttyshealy:
        LETS PLAY THE “TYPE THESE WORDS IN YOU R TAG BOX AND POST THE FIRST AUTOMATIC TAG THAT COMES UP” GAME: DIRTY WORD ADDITION OK
(Note: For those who want to play, the post in question is at http://katsuko1978.tumblr.com/post/84499783778/sure-why-not)

June
mechinaries:
        BUCKY WITH HICCUPS THO

July
Perfection ♥

August
Accurate post is accurate as fuck.
(note: In reference to a Sailor Moon image set with Tuxedo Kamen doing fuck all as per usual.)

September
That shit was TERRIFYING to me as a kid, to the point I’m still amazed my entire goddamned generation as a whole avoided lifelong psychiatric care.
(Note: Dare you to click me :D)

October
hoechloin:
        Can you believe they call us criminals when he’s assaulting us with that haircut?

November
How is this not the most reblogged post on Tumblr right now?
(Note: In regards to a post stating "Reblog if you want a Black Widow movie.")

December
beniaminus:
        Was making slides for my mythology class when suddenly...

See, much more content!

Crossposted from DreamWidth. Click here to see other replies to this post.

SHE LIVES!

katsuko — Sat, 13 Sep 2014 15:29:01 GMT

So, yeah, apparently I'm still breathing and all. Yay!

For those folk who have apollymi friended as well and can read her posts, you likely know that around 14 August I had a little accident at work that resulted in a broken right pinky. This left me in a splint (more like a soft cast because they wound up wrapping the pinky and ring finger and only left my thumb, index and middle fingers free) for about three weeks: an initial cast at the emergency room the night the accident happened and a new splint at the clinic for follow-up the following week. I should have had a second exam in there somewhere but my appointment was canceled the day before Dragon*con so I wound up in that second splint for two full weeks. The casts are all off now, and I had my last follow-up appointment this past Thursday. Worker's comp is covering my expenses there, and supposedly I'll be getting reimbursed for the days I missed work (a double that Friday which would have been around 8 hours, a 5 hour Saturday dinner shift, and a 4 hour Sunday brunch shift) but we'll see where that's concerned.

Mostly, I wanted to make a post today to let everyone know I'm still out there in the world.

Also, for my own reference, I'm putting notes for my current knitting project behind the cut tag.

Current Project

Fingerless gloves, knit flat, with addition of thumb sleeve.

Pattern

Body: Cast on 36 stitches.
Rows 1 through 7: K2P2
Rows 8 through ?: K1P1
Cast off using K1P1 pattern from previous row.
Stitch together, leaving approximately 2 inches for thumb sleeve.
Thumb sleeve: Cast on 10? stitches.
Rows 1 through 7: K1P1
Cast off using K1P1 pattern.
Stitch together to form tube.
Stitch thumb sleeve to body, inside-out.
Turn gloves right-side-out.

This is still a work in progress, I've only just finished Row 7. This is being worked sort of backward, starting at the hand and working to the end so that the K2P2 ribbing is snug at the hand/fingers then stretchy through the forearm area. As I make alterations I'll come back and correct the pattern.

Anyone else who may be reading this who knits, feel more than welcome to nic this and share any thoughts towards the process. I knit flat because I'm still just a beginner, but I think that it could be adapted for DPN or circular needles as well.

Crossposted from DreamWidth. Click here to see other replies to this post.

Camp NaNo Time Again!

katsuko — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 11:34:11 GMT

So, yeah. I have an idea or two for Camp this year:

Idea One: A story that follows a morally dark main character. I cannot say "protagonist" if the guy/girl/creature/whathaveyou enjoys wicked activities, right?

Idea Two: Supernatural/Teen Wolf universe fusion wherein I shuffle two story/timelines accordingly so that the Apocalypse was averted, Dean didn't know Sam was back for something like nine or ten years, and oh yeah, did I mention the part where Dean Winchester = Sheriff Stilinski and he took Claudia's name and she was already pregnant when they met? Stiles' Stilesness is all from him momma.

And... that's all I got right now. Need to start out the door to catch the bus for work.

Crossposted from DreamWidth. Click here to see other replies to this post.

So Long and Thanks for All the Knee Pain

katsuko — Mon, 19 May 2014 01:41:02 GMT

So, yeah. Long time no post, mainly due to stress from work. Which is going to decrease significantly.

As many of you know, back in December I started working for Movie Tavern. Then in February I moved into a server position which started off fairly good. Then we hit the "down season" for movies and hours just... went away.

Hours went away, much of the tips went away as a result, and I've spent the past couple months having to borrow money from family and friends to make ends just kinda glance off one another. Needless to say this set off the search for a second job with an interview here and there but nothing beyond the formality of thank you but no thank you.

Until this past Wednesday (i.e. 7 May).

On this day, I had an interview scheduled at Mirko Pasta in Buckhead for an application I submitted on 26 April. The day previous, 25 April, Yami and I had eaten lunch at the restaurant and the server on duty made mention that she lived in East Cobb and normally worked at the Marietta location of the restaurant but was helping out because Buckhead was short-staffed. Seeing an opportunity, I asked for an application and wound up chatting with the manager Carlos. He said that he was more looking for a food runner than a server, and gave me a quick run-down on the duties required - checking the tickets to ensure everything is correct, garnishing the plates with either parsley or basil, delivering the food quickly and offering Parmesan cheese, and making sure that the servers had everything they needed from the window. So basically runner/expo. The position paid $8/hour, and I accepted an application that was turned in the next day as previously mentioned.

Carlos called me to arrange the interview on Friday, 2 May.

When I went in to my interview on that Wednesday, I was expecting a standard interview - why do you want to work here? what experience do you have? how are you under pressure? - and acted accordingly. I arrived a few minutes early, and Carlos was ready to sit down with me. We slipped into a booth, and I got a very pleasant shock.

The interview was basically this: "I already knew that I was going to hire you when we talked the other week, this is just a formality. When can you start?" And then when I said Monday (12 May) his response was, "How quickly can you go to the corporate office [in Dunwoody] to get your paperwork filled out? You'll start on Monday at 5."

So for a full week I have been at Mirko, not stressing out even when things get hairy (Monday = buy a glass of wine get the bottle; Tuesday = $1.75 draft beer all day; Wednesday = kids eat free; Thursday = $1 Sangria). On Friday, Carlos said that he wanted me to start server training this coming Monday and put me on to train Monday with one of the other guys then work my runner shift in the evening, and repeat that all week.

So, bearing everything mentioned above in mind, let's slide over to Movie Tavern once again.

As soon as I knew I got the job at Mirko, I went to management and asked to change my availability due to work. I was okayed to do so and submitted the form with not available for Monday through Friday and available any shift for Saturday and Sunday. When the schedule for this week (work week at Movie Tavern begins on Friday, whereas Mirko is Monday), I was on for a closing shift Friday as well as Wednesday and Thursday. I managed to exchange the Friday shift with a coworker so long as I switched for Saturday as well, and started checking to see about having someone take over my other two "can't work" shifts. All the while I was grumping to myself regarding the availability policy but biting my tongue.

As an aside, I went to my evening Mirko shift on Friday and mentioned how frustrating the whole thing at the other place was. Carlos told me, "They don't love you like we love you, just quit over there and I'll get you hours." He then added if I quit right then, I could come in on the weekend and pick up hours if I wanted.

Back to Movie Tavern once again. On Saturday morning, I walk in to a big sign saying "Mandatory Server Meeting Wednesday and Thursday. Please pick a day and time to attend." Meeting Time A was 11AM, i.e. when I'll be finishing up opening procedures at Mirko; Meeting Time B was 5PM, i.e. when my evening shift begins. The note also said to give a written statement to a manager is unable to attend, but when I tried the manager told me, "You HAVE to go," then when I said I was working all day I got a, "Talk to GM."

Add on to this the fact that I had a full theater on my own with 10 tables plus literally half of a second theater with 10 tables while the other half of the theater was near-evenly split between three other servers, a snafu with a gift card where the guest YELLED at me for five minutes calling me an idiot, and a manager blowing me off when I was trying to fix the problem? Meltdown in the server station... where only three other servers and two trainers checked on me as another three managers fucked off on by.

Went in this morning to... basically the same shit.

So when I left this afternoon, it was after leaving a note for the GM saying I quit immediately and several phone numbers for people who I consider friends from there. I will not be going back on Wednesday or Thursday, or for any shifts they try to put me down for. This weekend all but broke me, and like Carlos said, Movie Tavern doesn't love me like Mirko Buckhead already loves me after a friggin' week.

So out with the old of Movie Tavern (I will not miss thee) and in with the new of Mirko where I'm a server after a week rather than three months and much harassment of management later.

Crossposted from DreamWidth. Click here to see other replies to this post.

katsuko — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 01:07:19 GMT

Not a whole lot to say at the moment. Worrying mostly about rent that's coming up pretty damned fast and really worrying that I won't have enough to avoid being late on said rent. As a result I've put up a "please help, internet" post over on Tumblr; if anyone is willing or able to assist I will greatly appreciate it.

And now, to try and write something so I feel a little productive. Or I might just read fic, who knows. Anyways, later.

Crossposted from DreamWidth. Click here to see other replies to this post.

What the what.

katsuko — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 01:09:48 GMT

So... hi, y'all. Remember from this rambling what's going on post from last month in which I mentioned my car vanishing sometime in late February?

Yeah, about that.

Got a phone call yesterday from DeKalb PD while I was on shift at work - I've made the novel discovery that I can leave my phone on vibrate and occasionally a signal will get through enough for me to get text messages or voice mail - and left a message around 1:30 in the afternoon. I was able to check it at 3:15 when I walked out of the building for the day and was instructed to call them back in regards to my vehicle (their words). I tried a couple times during the drive and finally got through sometime close to 4 in the afternoon, fully expecting to have the nice detective tell me that they'd found the car totaled or completely stripped and would I like to come down and salvage any belongings that might not have gotten tossed.

Instead, I get told that my car was found abandoned on the other side of Decatur/Scottsdale/Tucker and it was in a nearby impound yard. And by nearby I mean that the lot is in Tucker about ten minutes from our place. The only problems that the department was informed of was a flat passenger side tire, which was likely why it was abandoned. Detective Cox told me to give the towing company in charge of the yard a call and find out what I needed to do about picking up the Honda and that he was sorry it took so long to recover it.

I nearly told him I was surprised they recovered it at all.

Anyways, I called the towing company immediately only to be informed that they were closed for the day and to call again this morning. I thanked them and headed home. This morning I called over and spoke to a young woman on the phone who informed me that yep, the car was on the lot and I would need $155 to come get it out, and that it was in drivable condition.

Around 12:30 or so, Yami and I headed over to the impound yard and spoke to what was apparently a second young woman. She allowed me to go out into the lot to get the registration/title out of the glove box, and the whole walk I was convinced that those would at least be gone, and that there would be some trouble in regards to the car over all. But when we got out there, not only was the flat the only visible sign of vehicular trauma, but all my CDs that were in the car - including the one that is available either for $50+ online or $20 through the artist's web site - were still there. I quickly got the registration and bill of sale out of the glove box and headed back to the office, prepared to pay and just get going.

This is when the young lady told me that it would be $200 to get the car out.

I spoke up to say that I'd been informed over the phone that it was $155; I very nearly added that they could just junk the car, I only needed about a minute to go get my CDs and tissues and then I'd be rolling off in Yami's car again. Before I got that far the woman relented on the price back to the original quote but bitched under her breath the entire time about it.

Once that bullshit was dealt with, it was back out to the lot to drive off in the car... only it didn't crank. And the gas tank was sitting on damned near empty. Seems like the flat tire wasn't the only thing to end the month-and-a-half joyride after all. The worker on the lot inflated the flat for us, and then he jumped off the battery. All this, bee tee dubs, was taking place in a light sprinkle that quickly turned into a downpour.

So, car jumped off, I proceeded to the gas station to put fuel in the tank. Only the second I cut the engine the battery charge died. I called Yami to swing back around for a jump-off, put $5 into the tank, then tried to put the car into neutral to move it out of the downpour. Which didn't work. Because apparently jimmying the ignition also fucks with the gearshift, and now to do anything with the engine cut off I have to shove something vaguely key-shaped into the shiftlock slot in order to get into neutral.

Anyways, Yami came back and after several false starts and fits with trying to push my car out of the worst of the rain, we got it jumped off and back to the complex. The Honda is parked up by the office, under a street lamp that is on at all times, and the courtesy officers have been informed that it's sitting there until we figure out what to do with it.

Honestly, I had written it off as gone. So much so that I've already invested at least $400 into a basic motorcycle riders course, a helmet, disk and cable locks, and a remote controlled alarm system towards a motorcycle or scooter as a replacement. I even have a couple that are top contenders for my new ride.* I really don't have the inclination at this point to sink any money into a car that won't pass the Atlanta emissions requirements without a ton of work, nor can I afford that headache.

But I'm holding off on any decisions with the car as yet. The thought right now is to maybe shuffle it back to south Georgia where Yami's stepfather can fix it up and sell it without worry over emissions testing, or to call one of the cash for cars places around here to get them to take it off my hands. It's been a long day, to be honest, and I just wanna get back to reading this awesome fic the lovely bestie sent me earlier today... so that's what I'm gonna do.

* There are currently three scooters that I'm giving consideration to. Factors do include pricing, but I also need something that can get up to highway speeds given my work travel necessities. Those scooters are the Genuine Scooter Company Hooligan, the GSC Blur, and the Suzuki Burgman 200. Right now I'm leaning more towards the Burgman because it has a slight size advantage over the other two even if it's more comparable in size to the Blur, yet I know for certain it can reach the speeds I need.

I may give the Blur a chance though; then again, there are two locations that sell the GSC scooters in the area and the same amount of Suzuki powersports dealers. We'll see what happens when I finish the course, I suppose.

Crossposted from DreamWidth. Click here to see other replies to this post.

Blah

katsuko — Sat, 05 Apr 2014 03:50:15 GMT

Ugh, today.

Yesterday was the awesome of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and that was definitely of the good. Today was... not as awesome.

The kickoff to the morning was rushing around to get dressed and ready for work. I could have sworn I set my alarm clock last night, yet I drifted awake in the early hours to see what time it was... and saw 6:30am blinking back at me. Given that this is generally the time I'm finishing getting my was paint put on and grabbing some hot tea for Yami to drink on the road, it was a bit panic-inducing. I wound up grabbing the dry shampoo, giving myself artfully messy bedhead as the 'do is still too short to pull into any kind of ponytail and I do not have an official Movie Tavern hat to wear on Hair Ain't Workin' days, and throwing on my uniform in order to get us out the door at the usual time.

And somehow, we still managed to get to Roswell with time to spare for a Panera Bread run.

I didn't actually mention it in yesterday's post, but work was not too awesome in some ways but kick-ass in others. Our third server for the day - being our third server until around 2:30 in the afternoon - never bothered to show up after calling in to say she was going to be late, so me and Huey wound up splitting 11 theaters between the pair of us... and everyone was wandering to my end of the building. So yeah, heavy tips from people, mixed with some grumps who were pissy to not get individualized every-second attention, a kitchen staffer who thinks that two people should be able to take orders from 20+ guests while at the exact same second delivering food for another 10+ bitching at both of us with Judgement Face, and no runners on duty made for what was obviously a Kattan too tired to realize she didn't set her alarm clock.

This morning, however, was better. Rather than two servers they scheduled five of us to open for four breakfast films: Mr. Peabody and Sherman which I worked all day today, Muppets Most Wanted, Noah, and Captain America. Huey was running a bit late, so Greg took over Muppets for him - which worked out because he was supposed to have Noah and nobody showed for it, while Eric and Avery were in Cap. And seriously, five bodies in the building when the 10 o'clock hour shows start seating is the best goddamned thing in the world! I actually had time to spend with my few tables today, and I enjoy my tasks better when I can be in the theater and not worry too much about my other three theaters where I know lights are on. I mentioned working Peabody for three showings, but I also worked a 10:30 showing of Cap with Eric and then a 2:00 showing of Non-Stop alone.

The tips weren't as high today, but I chalk that up mainly to (1) not working the entire west side of the theater by myself and (2) not having quite as many tables. Yesterday I wound up ending the day with seventeen total tables for the day; today I walked out having worked twelve overall. But apparently I'm making the big bucks for the company, as I pulled in nearly $450 in sales for those tables.

Anyways, I'm probably gonna wander off to bed here in a little while and check my alarm for the fourth time to make sure it's actually on. I have one more opening shift this week then a Sunday afternoon, a Monday morning, and a Tuesday afternoon followed by two days off. So I'm gonna cut this off here and say my goodnights.

Crossposted from DreamWidth. Click here to see other replies to this post.

The Winter Soldier

katsuko — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 02:55:22 GMT

I should be ficcing. I really should be working on getting my unfinished stories worked through, like I was intending for Camp. But what I am currently actually doing is fangirling and sending purely psychic (not physic - sorry, utter inside joke) hugs to Bucky Barnes.

Oh yes, internet. I just got back from seeing Captain America: The Winter Soldier at the AMC by my flat. The reason for not going to Roswell was because (1) the web site said the seats were sold out and (2) that's too far to drive home from work, get changed, drive back up, watch a two hour film, and drive home with me on an opening shift in the morning.

But oh my god! Everything just worked so beautifully with the storyline (this is a no spoiler zone; if you somehow didn't know the identity of the Winter Soldier you either aren't a Marvel fan or have been living under a rock since The First Avenger given all the interviews the actors have done with spoiler mode apparently busted), and the situation with SHIELD in this one made the absence of said organization in the other Avengers-driven Marvel films make some goddamned sense. Some lovely cameos by actors who were in the previous Cap movie along with some from the other MCU properties was a great touch, and I can hardly recommend giving this one a watch enough.

But still, all the goddamned hugs for Cap and Bucky. Holy shit.

Crossposted from DreamWidth. Click here to see other replies to this post.

No April Fool's BS, just rambling

katsuko — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 02:54:58 GMT

So, day one of Camp NaNo commences... and as per usual with my brain here of late I have exactly fuck all so far as words or thoughts or anything substantial go. Team Hikari is firing on all cylinders as always!

Honestly, though, if just figures that the lead in week to camp was actually pretty work heavy for me. I had given all sorts of thought to going over my unfinished stories and picking out which ones I can swing into pretty quickly and which ones to put aside... and then on Wednesday, a few days after not really doing much of anything but work and snooze, my assistant GM Tony asks me as I'm prepping my theater, "Hey, D, do you have any medical restrictions that would keep you from working more hours?"

I just sort of blink at him for a second before replying with a no. The immediate reply?

"Okay, that's good, 'cause I have you scheduled for forty hours next [meaning this] week."

Apparently, he'd originally accidentally scheduled me for over forty hours but went through to fix it so it was just at forty hours: Friday from 4 to 11:30, Saturday from 11 to 7:30, Sunday from 8 to 6:40, Monday from 11 to 7:30, and Thursday from 8 to 3:30. I'm currently sitting at about thirty-four hours, so I'll either have overtime this week or get cut a bit early on Thursday's shift... and given that Cherokee County schools are on Spring Break this week with Cobb County schools on break next week, that might not actually happen. My best day this week was not over the weekend, but freaking Monday, with my biggest group on my first show of the day at 11:40 in the morning. I actually walked out of the theater on Monday with ninety freakin' bucks in tips from a total of seventeen tables, and two of my three rounds were where I was the sole server in a theater that had originally had at least one other person scheduled who didn't show for whatever reason.

So, yeah. I'm hoping Thursday will rock pretty hard as well on the tip line.

In other Kattan Life News, I actually got my reimbursement check from the Florida Department of Retirement Services yesterday. It was waiting in the mailbox when we got back from Roswell, and given that it was already after eight we opted not to turn back around to hit the bank. I went and did that this morning, so I'm pretty much waiting for the deposit to show up in the morning. When that happens I'm gonna trot my little butt to the office and pay the rent, and also see about when the hell they're going to replace the weather stripping at our door. They took it out last Thursday to repaint the front door, and we've seen no one back since then. Friday Yami and I were out of the house all day; likewise with Saturday; the workers aren't around on Sunday; and Monday we once again were away due to work. I left the house this morning to deposit my check, but other than that we've been home all day save for leaving around 8 to go to IHOP for dinner. No one came around at all, and we're honestly tired of hearing every goddamn thing ever happening in the area around the front of our building.

Seems like the weather stripping is also about ninety-five percent of our soundproofing, because the world sounds so much louder now in our little basement apartment. It seriously sounds like the lady next door trips up and down the fucking steps every time she goes anywhere, and I've gotten almost as much of a workout jumping up to look out the peephole and make sure she hasn't managed to kill herself out there as I do running up and down the hallway and stairs at work!

After rent is paid, I plan to look into signing up for the motorcycle training program that is offered through Georgia for new riders. This training actually comes with a ninety day testing waiver for those who pass the course... meaning that if I take the $250 course, using equipment provided by the training facility, then I can skip taking the riding and skills test and just go straight to getting a class M license. After that, Yami and I will go shopping to get me a 125cc+ scooter (scooter mostly because sometimes I feel like being somewhat femme and wearing heels, and it's easier to hop on a scooter with heels that to try operating a motorcycle no matter how much movies glamorize that ridiculousness) so that I'll have my own wheels to get around on again. This obviously also requires a helmet, a cover, and a means to secure that puppy because I don't trust the people in this complex further than I can throw 'em, but that was always part of the plan if I'm being completely honest. I've already started looking at options in the area, with plans to go through a dealership rather than a private seller. We'll likely do that on a day when we're both free, so I definitely will be getting this looked into ASAP.

At any rate, it certainly isn't boring around here, huh? And if anyone really wants to know why I have a bit of distrust towards the people who live in the apartments around me, either comment below (my replies will be screened only to the person asking and yours truly), leave me a PM, or shoot me an email. I'll be happy to share my paranoia with you.

Crossposted from DreamWidth. Click here to see other replies to this post.

Jesus Christ, why can I never remember this thing??

katsuko — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 04:06:04 GMT

So... anyone whose been wondering if I fell off the face of the earth, wonder no more (and terribly sorry to disappoint those who had hoped that the case. I still live, bitches!). Fact of the matter is, I just fail at writing lately on any and everything; the most I've really written since I think January is about three to five hundred words on a joint novella that apollymi and I have been playing around with.

FYI, that one won't be appearing in a fanish capacity, it's a straight up we-hope-to-make-moola-from-this venture with her writing as Ellie Hicks and me contributing as Kari Bishop.

Anyways, a bullet-point list of what's been up since my last journal entry:

My hours got cut at work by, like, a lot during my runner days. I think I was working maybe two days out of the week and even on those being cut loose early.
I got promoted to server and had to go through training again, which wasn't too terrible. I got minimum wage training pay for those days.
We had a freak winter storm that closed nearly all the roads due to icy conditions and lost about a week worth of training time.
Training got pushed back several days, meaning one week of training became two weeks instead.
After being greenlit for server on a Monday, I had to wait until that Saturday to officially start working again as there were no runner hours available.
My server hours started at only three days a week; I've only been cut early twice.
During the final week of February, on a day I was supposed to work, the Honda that I was in the process of buying off Yami's stepfather was fucking stolen from our apartment complex. A police report has been filed, long been filed since it's now been a month, but the police haven't found a thing. It's definitely long gone, and I'm still a bit pissed off about it.
I had to file for a refund of my employee contribution of my Florida retirement, which I did nearly three weeks ago. The paperwork to confirm arrived two Fridays ago and was put in the mail last Monday. I called today to find out what the status was and was told it would be sent out tomorrow. Fucking Florida is on a constant go-slow.
When my money arrives, it will be spent in the following manner: rent which is due by Thursday; $250 towards a two-day motorcycle training course; down payment on a motorcycle or 125CC+ scooter so I have a way to get around again without dragging Yami all over as my ride.

Needless to say, it's been a pretty busy time.

In other, slightly happier news, the reason my hours have been so low is because apparently January through early April is a very slow time for movie theaters. However, with Spring Break times starting in the next week and Captain America: The Winter Soldier premiering Friday, business is going to gradually pick up and continue on something of a more-up-than-down pattern through to summer, with a slight slump until October/November and continue through the holiday season on an up. This is already noted by me in that my manager, Tony, asked me yesterday if I have any medical restrictions followed by my negative with "good, I have you down for nearly 40 hours next week. It was over 40 but I didn't wanna do that to you. Oh, and I gave you good movies since you'll be working your ass off."

I'm honestly happy for it. More hours means more chance to get tips means more money towards my wheels.

Life gave me a few lemons. I think I might have just made a lemon meringue pie with 'em.

Crossposted from DreamWidth. Click here to see other replies to this post.

She returns!!

katsuko — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 00:40:50 GMT

Long time no post. Truth of the matter is, I was a bit wiped out from work and had a non-working brain; for the past few days my 750 has consisted of me copy-pasting stories that I'd written in late 2013 rather than attempt to make words of any sort flow.

Basically, work has been busy busy busy. I've opened just about every day I've been in, even the days I wasn't scheduled in until after we'd opened the shop... and with good reason. For both the past weekend days, only two or three people have been scheduled in the hour before opening, and of those people maybe one knows how to do drink station or sauces or anything of the like. I've been going in and getting drink station set up while Stasia is usually the second early-in person to get kitchen set up for sauces. Tuesday last she was off, so I set the kitchen to one of the other runners who managed rather well.

The trouble is, we have about a dozen runners out of the forty-some we still have who can either work mornings or have a flexible schedule. Of that number, maybe five or six know how to open without panicking or freaking out. And that number is very, very shortly to drop by one.

Oh, no, I'm not leaving.

In the past few days, a couple of the other runners I work with have expressed an interest in moving up to server. These folks have talked to no less than four managers, with each of them being told to talk to Stephanie or Chuck who then either tell them that they need a little more time getting runner duties down before moving forward or told to go to Harper, who then tells them that they need to find someone to replace them. From hearing all this, I'd been thinking that there was going to be no movement anywhere until we got some more new runners in the building, even after my conversation right around Christmas with Brent and Tony.

This morning, I was standing in the hall while we were in a bit of a lull near the drink station talking with Larry; usually I work drink station with Larry, but I wanted some floor time today and so was doing drink and food runner duty. Chuck and Tony were over by the manager's office talking themselves, so I didn't pay much attention... until Tony walked over to the pair of us and asked me how my schedule looks for the rest of the week. I told him I'm there tomorrow and Tuesday then off until Friday; Tony said that there's a couple of trainers coming in from I think Suwanee either Monday or Tuesday to do a training class, and he wanted to try and get me into the next session. He is talking with Chuck to see when they can get me in, but there was no talk of me finding a replacement or needing to get more runner experience in.

Because, apparently, I'm awesome. I know how to get the food and drinks to the theaters. I know how to open drink station and keep it moving when we're busy, whether there's someone behind the counter with me or not. I know which sauces go with what food item, and can very quickly check if I'm not sure and verify everything before it goes out. I can get the trays where they need to go without incident, and make sure to greet guests when I'm in the halls. I always ask the guests if they need anything else when I drop off anything with them, and try to pre-bus whenever I happen to see something that may need removed when dropping off food or drinks.

Most of the stuff mentioned above? About half the runners don't bother with. Even some of the servers don't bother with that sort of thing. And the morning shift is a bit... light on servers because most of them only want to work evening in hopes of bigger tips. When these folks do get evening shifts, they still whinge about poor tips. My thought is, when your tips are cruddy no matter what shift you're on, the problem isn't with the guests.

At any rate, I'm going to volunteer to continue working the early shift when I do actually move up to the server role. I know that I'll likely get better tips later in the day, but the way I see it is that if there are maybe seven servers before 11 in the morning the chances are good that I'll work one of the smaller theaters (the ones seating 45 to 55 guests) by myself. Which means I can work hard on those people in there and make their experience so awesome that not only do they come back, they give me a tip of some sort and ask if I'm working their theater the next time they visit.

Because to get something, you gotta give in return. And I plan to give the kind of service I'd want to receive.

Crossposted from DreamWidth. Click here to see other replies to this post.

New Year's Day

katsuko — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 04:44:11 GMT

Happy 2014! The new year is off to a start with yours truly enjoying a day off from the theater, the first in five days straight. Which may or may not be a pattern, given that I have the exact same schedule for the new week as I did last week, which I really don't mind in the least. I enjoy opening, which may seem odd to people, but to me means that I have the entire rest of the day to unwind and not worry about work again until morning.

I picked up my schedule for next week this evening, as the schedule is made each Wednesday. I'm not sure when my server training will start, but I'm giving some thought to going and getting a couple white button-down shirts tomorrow so I'm ready when the time comes. On one hand, it could be very soon; on the other, I'm one of like five runners out of forty that actually works without having to be given constant instruction so Harper might hang on to me pretty tight until he gets more good folks on the opening shift. Either way, I already know I'm pretty much not going to get fired unless I do something really stupid like cuss out a guest or pull a no-call-no-show.

Plans for today got a teeny tiny bit derailed. Yami and I were up, showered, and out of the house by 1 this afternoon in preparation for getting to my theater for the 2:30 showing of Frozen. By the time we got up to Roswell at 1:30, the seats that we had looked at online to verify availability were sold; in fact, the theater (one of the smaller, 50 seat theaters) was sold out. So we got tickets for the 8:30 non-3D showing and spent the afternoon roaming about the area near the theater on foot. We got a nice little walk in, found a small cemetery not more than two blocks from my work place, then around 5:30 decided to go sit in the bar area at the theater until showtime.

We took the time to catch up on some of the eBooks we've been reading, Yami also did a little work on the co-writing project we've had in the works for a Forever Knight fanfic for something like five years now, and enjoyed a glass of wine each. Seriously, I love that the bar is finally open for business, and will be even happier when we can start selling wine in the individual houses. Alcohol sales on the part of the servers means bigger tipouts for runners and service bartenders, after all!

Anyways, we finally got to see Frozen. And OMG, it's wonderful. Reviewers have commented that this is one of Disney's best films since the renaissance era of 1989-1999, and I can't say that I disagree with them. Every song was fantastic, and while "Let It Go" is most definitely the best song of the film the others are definitely worth buying the soundtrack for. Which, hell to the yes, I have in my iTunes library.

So, now we've returned home for the day and I'm bundled up in my robe. More renovations are supposed to begin taking place tomorrow on interior stuff, which I don't think sounds too awesome at all... but they did fuck up my wall around the patio door and I want it fixed if at all possible. As I said in the voice mail I left at the office the first time we had an indoor waterfall, I refuse to pay for damages they did to the apartment. I also have laundry to do tomorrow - my work clothes definitely need it! - and I'm gonna try to get over to Great Clips and get my haircut taken care of at last.

And I think that's about all my rambling for the night.

Crossposted from DreamWidth. Click here to see other replies to this post.

New Year's Eve

katsuko — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 04:23:48 GMT

So, it's the end of 2013 and the year has had its ups and downs, obviously. The biggest down was pretty obviously getting the axe not too long after moving to the ATL for the job, which has definitely led to a breakdown in any sort of contact with the paternal side of Yami's family with the exception of one of her aunts by marriage. But I don't wanna dwell on that sort of bullshit tonight.

We've been watching episodes of Forever Knight pretty much since around 7:30 or so, when we got dinner finished. We aren't watching the whole series, but selected episodes in an order that makes sense pretty much to only us. Today was another work day, and it went fairly well. There were some hiccups with some of the servers who want to not do much work at all - the servers are supposed to find something to do if they aren't terribly busy with their theater, one of the main ones being to roll silverware, but many of this particular group seem to think that particular job as well as running every item as the runners' jobs exclusively - which led to one of them blowing up at the runners who were getting ready to leave for the day about "standing around doing nothing but telling [her] to roll fucking silverware, it's not [her] fucking job to roll the fucking silverware, fuck you, it's your job" and getting pulled into the office by management because one of them was passing the drink station when she stormed through. If she's still there when I go back in on Friday, I'll honestly be shocked.

At any rate, I talked to the manager in charge of the servers/acting GM Tony this morning fairly early in the shift. I told him that I was giving thought to stepping up to a server position, and his response was basically "awesome, I'll talk to Stephanie when she comes in and see about getting you started on training as soon as possible." Can you tell we have some server issues? Especially for morning shift, no one wants to work in the mornings. I've seen nearly every server we have work a morning shift, and most of them bitch about it. My thought on the matter is, if you're scheduled in one of the smaller theaters as the only server, work your ass off and make sure that the guests want to leave you a tip rather than wander in the halls bitching that you have nothing to do yet snapping that some suggested task is "not [your] job."

Oh yes, I have some issues with some of the servers. Just pray to whomever that I never have to work a theater with those folks, because I will snipe their guests if they bugger off elsewhere.

And that's about all I have tonight. We're probably gonna finish up the last episode in our queue then head off to bed. Tomorrow is still possibly going to my store in the early afternoon for free movie day and food we don't have to make, and I'll get my schedule for next week at the same time.

Crossposted from DreamWidth. Click here to see other replies to this post.

Just another manic Monday

katsuko — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 01:09:19 GMT

Something's seriously got to give at work, and I'm starting to think it's gonna be me and/or Stasia jumping the runner ship.

So, as mentioned yesterday, Stasia and I were both scheduled at 10, but there were only two openers on at 9 so we both volunteered in early. And it's a damned good thing we did, because apparently up until New Year's Day, we're opening for some 9am showings without serving until 10. Which means I had barely any time to open the drink station this morning before handing it off to Trey at 9am when he arrived on time. By that point I'd already served two teas and a water.

As of 10am, we had a grand total of seven runners with one more arriving at 11am. And the only ones who seemed to be working were Trey as service bar because all the bartenders on duty were getting the main bar finished set up, Julio hopping into the drink station to help Trey, Stasia on sauce expo, and me running back and forth between the kitchen, bev station, and theaters with trays. Stephen was... semi-helpful, in that he would run trays but in between each one delivered he wanted to have five minute conversations with everyone about everything, while Crystal wanted to just run things at her own pace, which isn't very quick to be honest. Mia is used to evenings, so she wasn't sure of the pace at all. Monique, on the other hand, has a bad attitude. She wants to do what she wants, when she wants, and doesn't want to listen when given instruction by anyone other than a manager.

And, given that the runners during the day pretty much govern ourselves because Harper needs to ride herd in the evenings, Monique's 'tude got to me and Stasia pretty damned fast.

Stasia and I actually had a pretty in-depth talk in the kitchen earlier in the shift, while waiting for a tray to be finished up for Theater 6 to run out. She is firmly of the opinion that out of all the runners, the only ones who should be made trainers are the two of us because we're the only people who know both how to open in the mornings and close down at night. She also remarked that in about a month or two she's probably going to move up to server, because Brent (the bar manager) originally wanted her to come in as a server and move up to bar quickly; her plan is to be runner for a while and learn about all the dishes, then take that information with her to a server position and begin learning the bar drinks a bit before moving up again.

And, honestly, that's sort of my intended pathway. My mid-end goal is bartender, as I've mentioned before, but I'd be pleased as punch to go past that to an hourly manager position. I talked to Brent this morning when there were a few free minutes to tell him I'd like to get server trained. He told me that I'm one of a very few runners who is doing a phenomenal job in my position, so he doesn't think I'd have any problems moving up the chain and that I should talk to Tony (the acting GM and possibly soon to be official GM for our store) about it in the morning since he's opening. Brent also said that Harper might not want to turn me loose because of the whole doing my job right thing.

So tomorrow morning I'm gonna have a quick talk in the morning with Tony regarding the possibility of getting server training. The plan is to tell him that my ultimate goal is to be an hourly manager because I want to help make our location great and that might only be possible by riding herd on some of the staff more. Maybe not phrasing it exactly that way, but definitely letting him know my plan of attack. If all goes well, I may be a server by mid-January or early February, and I'll see about moving on up the chain to bartender around springtime.

And if I wind up being made a trainer, then all the better IMO. That's just one step closer to having some measure of authority over the folks who just want to come and collect a paycheck while putting in as little effort as possible... and that does go for some of our servers. There are a few that I could point to right now who complain that they get lousy tips but are also the same people I see milling about the halls during movies chatting even as they have a full section in a theater to tend to.

So, yeah. That's about all I have for today. I'm gonna read a bit and catch up on my mail, then possibly collapse into my bed before too late.

Crossposted from DreamWidth. Click here to see other replies to this post.

Sunday Sunday Sunday!

katsuko — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 02:15:57 GMT

So, more work ramble today. Don't ya love it?

I wasn't on the schedule for today until 9am, but I took a brief look yesterday to see how many openers (i.e. 8am on the weekend) we had and only saw three names. Given that we start seating about thirty to forty-five minutes before show time, I decided to go in early and pull an 8 to 4 rather than a 9 to 5. I arrived around 7:30, finished my hot chocolate in the car, then headed inside to clock in at about 7:45. As I was clocking in, one of the actual openers, Ryan, was arriving as well. So we clocked in and set about getting the drink station open for the day.

Stasia arrived at 8 on the dot - she was likewise scheduled in at 9 but came in early to help out - and set about making sure the morning sauces were ready to go. At about 8:30, we started working the runner board for the day and realized that the other two openers, Dammy and Chase, had yet to arrive. As Larry was due in at 9, I hopped onto drink station to help out there until he arrived then was set to be a drink runner with Julio, also due in at 9. Ryan floated between drink station and the kitchen, but once Larry and Julio arrived we realized that the first food runner on the schedule wasn't due in until 10. So Ryan and I both joined Stasia in the kitchen to run food while she did sauce expo. By noon, we had a grand total of eleven runners in the building: Larry at drink station, Trey in the drink station as the bar/soda backup, Julio, Ben, and another guy whose name I keep forgetting running drinks, Stasia as sauce expo, Ryan, myself, and Aumrie as food runners, and two guys whose names I can't remember working as theater cleaning.

Needless to say, we looked to see how many openers (9am on weekdays) are on shift tomorrow and found only two names. Stasia and I both volunteered to work an hour early to try and keep this from happening again.

So, yeah, today was a bit hectic.

It also appears that we've lost a lot of employees during the holiday week, which isn't terribly surprising. Christmas and New Years are pretty busy times for movie theaters, along with Thanksgiving which we missed this year but will do next year, and some people really aren't cut out for it. Same with retail, actually, which is why in my opinion every new retail employee must work the weekend after Thanksgiving as a trial by fire. If they can get through those initial three days of customer fuckwittery then they can survive in it the rest of the year.

But anyways, we started off with something like 150 servers, 15 bartenders, and 56 runners, with the remaining 25 to 30 being box office and projectionist staff (i.e. the only folks in the building making at least minimum wage consistently; bartenders, servers, and runners get a base pay that is augmented by tips or tipout). I happened to get a look at the schedule board today and noted that we are down by about ten to fifteen runners (either got frustrated over something and walked out or no-showed), there are nine bartenders left of the original fifteen, and about twenty servers are gone for some reason or another. I know we'll be hiring after the new year, but I can only shake my head and think how wonderful it must be for those thirty to forty people who don't have bills to pay or mouths to feed that they can fuck off of a job without worrying about money. Really, I want to live in the world where I don't have to worry about money at all like those folks.

At any rate, we are swiftly approaching the end of the year, and with a liquor license now in place business is notably picking up. Tuesday is going to be busy busy busy, especially after 5pm when people start getting off work from office jobs. I'm pretty sure the drinking will start promptly at 10am and not let up, and given then I think they're getting the service bar seen to overnight tonight I almost want to make the servers push as much liquor as they can that day. The more they get in sales, the more I get in tipout, after all!

And that's me hitting my 750 for the night, so I'll reel it in there.

Crossposted from DreamWidth. Click here to see other replies to this post.

Saturday Night Fever

katsuko — Sun, 29 Dec 2013 03:20:06 GMT

December is slowly coming to an end, and I think I'm ready for 2014 to arrive.

What my main hope is for the new year is this: that either I start getting better tipouts (because this seven bucks every two weeks thing is for the birds) or get cross-trained to go up to the bar or find a better server-type job where I can pocket some decent tips. I am trying to maintain cheerfulness but right now I'm too tired to really mince words much.

This morning was... not awesome at work, to put it mildly. I arrived a little bit before 7:30 and headed on into the building, arriving around the same time as Stasia. We went in and rejoiced that the kitchen was not FUBAR for a change, then went to clock in and get started on our day. The drink station was not trashed for a change, although I did have to reorganize slightly and refill ice and popcorn. I got the coffee started while Chase set to work getting the ice bins dealt with, and Stasia came by a few minutes after that looking miffed.

Turns out that at some point after the runners had left for the night, someone from the kitchen moved the sauces that were in one of the walk-ins to get to something... and then proceeded to not put the sauces back. Meaning we lost something like ten full tubs of the various sauces we need each day to get through a shift. And given that we send out ketchup with everything (the only things that don't get it are salads and pizzas because nearly every entree comes with fries) at least three of those tubs were highly needed. I know that I personally made two trays up of ketchup today but they were both gone completely by the time I left this afternoon.

So although we technically had enough runners to get through a breakfast shift (something like five, meaning one to run drink station, one to run drinks to theaters, one to do sauce expo in the kitchen, and two to run food) we wound up in a slump very early that we never really got out of. We had me on drink station, one of the younger runners running drinks, Tyler running food, and Chase and Stasia in the kitchen both making up sauces and trying to help expo breakfast as half our kitchen staff still can't get through a shift without a manager hovering. In their defense, however, we never actually ordered breakfast items during mock, which was probably a big mistake as no one in back of house was really ready for it. They're still learning, bless 'em.

By the time I left for the day, we had I think fifteen runners in the building, most of whom were just hovering around the drink station. The only people running food by 3 this afternoon were me, Tyler, Stasia, and one of our minor runners names Quillian who is a total sweetheart and just went wherever we aimed him. The other runner who busted his butt today was Dammy, who was in charge of helping bus the theaters and he was zipping up and down the halls when we had theaters letting out within ten minutes of one another. Boy can move, y'all.

Stasia and I both bounced around 3:40 or so, mostly due to being tired of all the younger runners copping attitudes with us when we asked them to run anything and hovering around the drink station chit-chatting instead of working. We both stopped off at the bar to say goodbye to our visiting trainer Alicia, who I know for sure I'm gonna miss like crazy. Our store is very short-staffed manager-wise, and Stasia practically pleaded with Alicia to consider transferring from her Kentucky store to work at ours. Alicia made some allusions to the fact that they've been keeping a close eye on who is actually working and who isn't, and that it may come to pass where some people will get moved up to official trainers and possibly management-level.

While that would be cool, I wouldn't mind just sticking at trainer. I really do wanna move up to the bar, and while I meant to talk to a manager today about possibly bypassing a stint as server to just go into the bar I never actually found a minute. See the above mention of losing a tonne of sauces and the need for any available runner to bust their humps on remaking what we no longer had.

At any rate, work is well past done for the day and I'm likely to sleep heavy tonight.

So now I'm just pushing through to the end of the year, which coincides with the end of my work week. I have another three days straight, two of those actual opening shifts of arriving before guests and one where I start when the first film begins seating, then two days off on Wednesday and Thursday. Depending on how things go (i.e. how much Forever Knight Yami and I watch when I get home on Tuesday), we might take a trek to my store and use my employee benefit of a free movie to finally see Frozen.

Crossposted from DreamWidth. Click here to see other replies to this post.

Friday woes

katsuko — Sat, 28 Dec 2013 02:52:35 GMT

*sigh* Work was pretty okay, but I'm in the midst of fretfulness at the moment. My rent is due on 1 January, and my half is around $400 approximately. At this moment, I have about $100 left from my last paycheck to go towards that. It is looking very much like the state of Florida may deny my claim for underemployment assistance - even with tipout, the store isn't bringing in enough in sales yet for me to be making minimum wage - and my next paycheck is on 3 January.

Yeah, you see my problem.

Additionally, we have had four bartenders quit, two servers have abandoned ship, and there's one runner who no one has seen in days. None of the current servers has any interest in going to the bar to work, and while I want to get trained as a bartender I need to go through server training and do a stint there first. And I'm giving some serious consideration to doing that after New Year's if I haven't given up on seeing any kind of decent money and going elsewhere.

That said, I've put in a few job applications this evening for work as a bartender and am looking for server positions as well.

I'm just feeling all around drained and fretful at the moment, and as I kept a smile on my face at work all day I'm about whupped from trying to stay positive. I may actually take a moment to talk to the acting GM tomorrow if he's around (oh yes, I forgot to mention that the GM quit on the Monday between when training ended and the shop officially opened. What the what, yeah?) and see if he would let me go though server training and then move right up to the bar. We got a shipment in today of the liquor - finally! We've only gone through one of the two biggest bar sales days of the year and suffered for not having any in house - so there will be a need for bartenders, and with no servers interested in stepping up... well. I'll gladly do it.

And now I'm gonna go and either read more fic or just curl up with Samurai Deeper Kyo on the loveseat until I'm tired enough for sleep. I'm at Volume 36 - part of a double-volume of the last four books of the series - and when that's finished up I'll have the double-volume containing 37 and 38 to go before I'll have it done.

If anyone wants to help out and has the means to do so, PM me and let me know, and I'll give you my PayPal account email. For now, I'm gonna try not to worry too much and hope for the best.

Crossposted from DreamWidth. Click here to see other replies to this post.

Thursday ramblings

katsuko — Fri, 27 Dec 2013 03:47:10 GMT

*sigh* Yet another day spent sitting around the joint waiting to hear if maintenance was going to show up or not. After their stupidly aborted attempt on Tuesday - aka The Day I Told Them Specifically That No One Would Be Home - there hasn't been any indication of them trying to come again and assess the damages. We wound up getting up at 8:30 this morning, around the time renovations began once more for the day, and finally got a call regarding the carpet guy coming to put down new padding where he'd pulled it out sometime around 1.

And then it turned out that he wasn't going to arrive until 4:30. Y'all beginning to see why Yami and I are already apartment shopping for August yet?

The dehumidifier is gone at last, the wetness has been dealt with, and the carpet guy said he was going to talk to the office to let them know it would be okay to come in and repair/paint the damaged areas. Who wants to bet that no one will show up until either a weekend day or manage to pick the one day during the week when Yami has somewhere to be? If she gets called for an interview, I know she'll not want to tell them "I really can't on that day, my apartment complex may or may not be sending someone to fix the wall."

Seriously drained from dealing with these people. I actually told my mom on the phone this afternoon - today was Daddy's birthday, and I called up north to wish him well and chat with both the parentals - that if Isis wasn't a lady of color she'd be a perfect stereotypical blonde. My exact phrasing was if she wasn't black she'd be a blonde and cracked Yami up in the other room... because she'd described Isis that way to her grandmother not a couple days ago. Great minds, yes/no?

Anyways, it's already after 10:30 as I type this up and I have the opening shift at work tomorrow. I also open on Saturday for the breakfast shift then have a 9am day for Sunday. Monday is the latest morning I've worked so far, starting my day at 10am, then on Tuesday I slip back to a 9am day. It's also New Year's Eve, so I'll actually be leaving before any real drunken revelry begins. I think we may be trying to do the Melting Pot thing again this year, so that'll be fun. And even if we don't, we have a lovely wine assortment at home to ring in 2014 if we so desire.

And with that, I wrap up this little post and try to head in a bedwardly direction. Later, gators.

Crossposted from DreamWidth. Click here to see other replies to this post.