Well, I was dreading going into work yesterday, but it was't as bad as I thought it would be. Stil boring and childish, but at least I got to learn a bit about how to use the till (the completely different one than the one I spent three days training on).
I still think I have a hell of a lot to learn today, as I am supposed to be by myself for 3 hours tomorrow, for 5 hours the next day, closing by myself both of those times. But hey, they aren't concerned that I know almost nothing about the store, its procedures, or the stock, so why should I be?
Back to the childishness of it..my own supervisor acts like a kid who's on detention. Doesn't want to be there, everything is done begrudgingly, and this is an assistant (currently acting) manager who is awaiting word on getting the manager's job.
Everyone (especially her) runs in fear of the managers..."ooh, if you do that, so-and-so will be pissed", "so-and-so gave me a tongue lashing for trying to do that", and "you can get away with this if so-and-so is on, but if so-and-so is on, they'll flip out and you'll be recommended for 'counselling' (slap on the wrist)"
The managers do like to stick their nose into everything, and reduce the autonomy of the department managers..several little, absolutely minor aspects of a display had to be changed becuase so-and-so didn't like the look of the centre channel speaker than someone else had picked.
I'm surprised the managers even go by their first names, and don't insist on being called "Mr.so-and-so, or Ms. So-and-so" to enforce their authority. So childish.
Sent in my resume to the Esplanade today.
First impressions..LD is going to be boring, corporate crap. If Co-op wasn't so boring and minimum-wage plus commission, I would now be thinking I made a mistake by leaving. I honestly coulsn't have handled the boredom, and the money was so lame.
LD on the other hand, is so corporate ddriven, so "sell-sell-sell", and apparently almost as boring. Not much traffic, and this is pretty disappointing.
I am not cut out for this retail nonsense anymore. RCMP, please call soon..Esplanade, please hire me and get me out of retail hell.
A quote I am going to have to work into a conversation...
"..like Mike Tyson on roofies and Red Bull."
For anyone who hasn't seen it on Mukey's blog...
LD training went well. Aced all the quizes and the couple of hours spent on cashier duty at the front, for experience's sake.
Unfortunately, all the stuff I learned in training is next to useless in the AV department, and I'm basically starting all over again, with haphazard, unstructured training from a directionless department whose manager quite before I arrived.
It also seems that they are not a busy department, although there will be more active to-do lists than Co-op had. Yay.
Don't get me wrong, as with all things, I will do my best to make the most of it, but at the end of the day, it is retail, and I must rise above it. Esplanade resume will be sent this weekend.
Is the bloody RCMP ever going to call? Just when I figure, based on their indications, no less, that it will be "any day now", I keep waiting..and waiting..and waiting..
After a year of almost daily checking of the City of Medicine Hat website for tech jobs at the Esplanade, they are finally posted. I am not sure that is exactly what I want, but hell, I will be applying anyways, for if I don't, I'll always wonder about it. Can't be worse than retail hell.
Will get the resume in before going to Florida, as the competition closes on the 25th of July, the day we'll be heading back to the Hat.
The funny thing is, with jobs on my mind, I haven't even been checking the City website regularly..a friend of ours found the postings and let me know about them. Who knows when I would have gotten around to checking again. Thanks for thinking about me, Sam!
Batman Begins was pretty darn good. My expectations were pretty high, so it's hard not to come away a wee bit disappointed, but mostly in the "Hollywood standard" way that certain parts of the movie were handled. I hate car chases, even if they do involve a Batmobile. And part of the movie bored the crap out of me. And there just wasn't the villainy I was expecting. I won't say anymore, so as not to spoil for those who haven't seen it.
Overall, though, it was MORE than good enough to help me forget damn Joel Schumacher and his campy crap sequels. Damn you Schumacher! Damn you to Hell!!
Next up, Fantatsic Four...
LD training is 2/3 done, and I'll be starting the job in earnest soon. Almost done at Co-op. Florida looms in the distance.
First day of training done. Went OK, looking forward to getting through the next two days and getting to the job itself.
On the way out, spotted the Batman Begins toy selection, and picked up Bruce-to-Batman, with the removable cape and cowl. I'm a sucker for stuff like that. Many years ago, I had the Michael Keaton Batman figure with a similar removable cowl, and would love to get my hands on the old 1960's Mego Batman with the same. I loved those old cloth-costumed heroes..I still have some, but wish I had kept more from my childhood, and in better shape.
ANyways, the funny thing about this one I bought is in the additional language translations..in English and French, he's still Bruce Wayne, but in Spanish, he's Bruno Diaz! That's the first time I've noticed a proper name changed on a major character to suit the language/culture.
Had a good weekend..eye appointment was fine, they're healing A-OK, and I'll have another checkup two days before going to Florida. Went from the checkup in Calgary to a family feeding-frenzy in Leduc, for my sister's 50th birthday, had a fun time. I haven't been home since April, this is the longest space between visits since we moved to the Hat. Missing the family quite a bit, I found it tough to leave on Sunday. Those are the choices we made, though, in the quest for career advancement (in Allie's case) and the quest for...well, whatever it is I'm questing for.
Had what should be the last hoop to jump through for the RCMP today, the "Security Interview" and fingerprinting. The interview is to make sure I'm a good Canadian with no diplomatic ties to foreign lands, and to make sure that I don't look like an easy target for bribery or blackmail. According to the RC's, the start date should be fairly soon.
Went and bought my least favourite fashion for London Drugs training tomorrow..black pants and white shirts. Ugh. I hate white dress shirts.
I need to see Batman Begins soon before I find out too much from people that have done so already.
Finally, an update from the RCMP. I go in Monday for ONE MORE interview, the security interview, and to be fingerprinted. I also start training at London Drugs next week.
Friday was supposed to be my last day at Co-op, but he had me scheduled til Saturday for some reason. I need Friday and Saturday off to go to my followup eye appointment in Calgary, so in getting those off, I foolishly agreed to help out a bit next week too, while he is on holidays and they are short staffed. I was supossed to do Wednesday, but that interefers with LD training, and I will work next Saturday for them. I wish I could go back to when I told him I was leaving, and he asked if I was staying the weekend, and instead, I said I was giving the full two-weeks notice. Oh, if I had only said weekend or one-week. I don't even want to go waste my time there anymore.
Can I please fast forward to the vacation, run it in slow-mo so it feels like I'm there for two months instead of two weeks, then come back to gainful employment?
We got all dressed up and went to a United Way/Medicine Hat Health Foundation fundraiser last night. It was held at our old mall Cineplex Odeon, now rebranded as Galaxy Cinemas. For $20 per person, we got cocktails, appetizers, a bunch of corporate schmoozing that reminded me of MacEwan, and our choice of three movies, including popcorn and non-chocolate bar snacks. She got her Yogen Fruz..I got Cookies and Cream ice cream. Mmmmm.
She looked so awesome all dressed up, she put me to shame. I was figuring dress-casual, you know, button up shirt and khakis, but she looked like we were headed for a REAL evening out. She's so beautiful.
The date of the thing being June 15 led me to believe that one of the movies HAD to be Batman Begins, but alas, it was not to be. The choices were Madagascar, The Longest Yard, and the one we chose, Cinderella Man. Good movie. Very Ron Howardy.
Went with A. into the local Jesus store (Christian bookstore) to find a gift for a friend of hers. After browsing such pamphlets with information on "how to witness a Mormon", "how to talk to the Jehovah's Witnesses when they come to your door", and "the truth about Harry Potter", we saw the little crytsal blocks with the 3-d engraved images inside. We actually bought one, just to get the free light-up base, so I could use it with my Nightmare Before Christmas crystal that C&D gave me last year. :)
While browsing at them, seeingsuch images as the cross, the angel playing the harp, and the family reading from their prayer books together, I thought to myself (and wished Mike was here to appreciate it) "Oh, here's one with Jesus shoving his shepherd's staff up a Mormon's ass!"
Yeah, lasik surgery is weird, alright. Very unnerving to lose feeling in your eyeball, lie down on the table, and feel the speculum going in to keep you from blinking. You still blink, but your eye doesn't close. You stare at the now vastly out-of-focus red flashing light, then you really do lose your vision for 30 seconds or so while the suction ring goes on. Darkness creeps in from the outside..very unnerving. Then the sound of the keratome, which is less like a gentle hum, and more, in my mind, like a Dremel tool. I'll have to try and find out what it looks like and how it cuts,exactly.
Vision comes back, and you can actually see them flip up the flap, as if you're staring at a blurry red light through water, and a transparent door is flipped upwards. Then comes the burning hair smell. The flap comes down, and it's done. repeat for as many eyes as you happen to have. Generally, that would be two.
One hour of recovery in a dark room wearing sunglasses. A checkup, by which point, the numbing drops are weaing off and the eye is beginning to itch. Then out the door. It must look like some kind of "They Live" secret society, all these people with identical sunglasses exiting the building every ten minutes or so.
The next hour was bad, the worst part of the experience. The drive to A's cousin's house, my eyes began tearing up, blurring, and I couldn't keep them open. It was brutal, like being in a sandstorm. In the house, more drops, and as they recommended (and I wouldn't have wanted to do anything else), as many hours of sleep as I could manage.
Recovery has been swell since then. Vision is really good, just a little light sensitive, and minor halos from bright objects, especially at night. Friday is the 1 week checkup, and any sweling should be down considerably by then, as I've been a good boy and have administered the required 4 types of eyedrops as scheduled.
I keep looking for my glasses...
I now have 20/20 vision, and I am not even healed up yet. It should get even better.
What a strange experience that was. I will go into more details later, but for now, all I will say is burning corneas smell like burnt hair.
My newspaper delivery career has ended a few weeks sooner than I was planning.
I've been leaving very polite notes for my collect subs, stating the amount they owe, and asking if they could either leave payment in their mailbox, as several of my subscribers had offered to do already, or call me if this was not agreeable. Several of them, no call, nor payment. Second note, asking them to call me. Again, no response. Third note, asking them to advise me what's going on to ensure uninterrupted service.
Then the angry phone calls started, ending with a trip to collect from one home tonight, and getting yelled at and bitched out. I collected, left, and left a message for the district manager at the paper, thanking her for finding me a sub for Saturday and Monday (for the eye surgery) and to find someone else to put up with the shit and abuse from these deadbeats, as this morning was my last.
Next week I will have to settle the account, and try my best to get the money that they'll owe me for the deadbeats, the slackers, and the ones that cancelled their subs partway through a two-week billing cycle, and owe me for partial weeks delivery, which they seem to have no intenytion of paying, even though I technically paid for their papers in advance.
Why the News still even has carrier-collect is ridiculous. This is 2005, not 1975.
Oh well..even if they stiff me out a few bucks, at least it is done, and I don't have to get up at 4AM anymore.
Better start hitting the gym, lest I gain back the near 20 lbs I have lost (yep, from my all-time high (or is it all time low?) weight of around 236, I am down to about 215, and feeling very good about it.
Can you tell I'm up early for a change, instead of going back to bed until noon (after my papers, and before the Co-op)? Look at all these posts!
The quitting of Co-op was better than I thought it would be. I still felt terribly guilty, as Kelvin, the manager, is a great guy, as are the other employees, and I felt bad leaving after he invested time in training me. The last few days, though, made it even more clear that I made the right choice.
The store is so dead.
They say they don't rely on foot traffic, but rather on building a client base, but there sure as hell isn't much to do when there's nobody coming in the door. I can't stand just pacing back and forth, waiting for something to happen.
Kel did a very nice thing, since I don't have that client base, and would be making minimum wage, pretty much, for the duration of my two-weeks notice, he is assigning his commissions to me, as a thank you for actually giving notice, and staying a bit. In the past, I guess he's had people just cal up same day, saying "Not coming in today...not now, not ever again" which is incredibly rude. I wouldn't do that to them, no matter how quick LD wants me to start. One week left at Co-op, then hopefully the LD training begins.
Oh yeah, just heard that the LD manager that hired me gave his two weeks notice, and is moving on to work for Bell. Geez, do I smell or something?
So, preparations are underway. Dogs get vaccines this morning, The Critter Sitter comes over this evening for a quick orientation on how to care for our kitties for the weekend. Tomorrow morning, the dogs go to Animal House for the weekend, a kennel just outside of town.
A. will get off work at 7AM saturday morning, we will hit the road to Calgary, and after 11:30, they slice back a wedge of each cornea and carve with a laser until I can see without glasses.
From the Procedure page:
A small speculum keeps your eyes from blinking.
A suction ring is placed on the eye. Your vision then goes dark.
You hear the gentle hum of the keratome.
The vision returns. Your job is to look into the middle of the red light.
The laser makes a small clicking noise.
You can smell the evaporation of tissue.
MMMM, speculum, suction rings, and the sweet, sweet smell of evaporation of tissue..is it Friday already?
**gentle hum** click click click
There is a white Caddilac in Fettig's driveway this morning. Why am I not surprised that he has the epitomy of gas-guzzling, land yacht, rich-old-man cars?
Man, Justice League Unlimited isn't a cartoon for kids, is it? I mean, I knew that already, having watched a particularly scary episode a while ago, and a fairly adult-themed episode last week. The last one I saw was crazy, way too violent for kids (though I, as a kid, would have thought it was the most awesome thing ever)
The fight between Captain Atom and Superman was something that live-action superhero producers should look at..that is what super-fights are about.
The tough decision is really no decision at all..with an offer of a shade under $10 per hour, I have to go with London Drugs, but I really am dreading the "We have to talk" that I will bring up with the Co-op manager today. I really like the store. I like the people. I have no connection to furniture, appliances and bedding. I hate the money and the commission structure.
I said this in brief before, but I actually feel like my opinions and contributions are valued, limited as they are by my lack of experience. If anything I contributed can be of use, I hope they run with the ideas in my absence, and I hope the store does well. With two weeks' notice, I hope I'm not leaving them in too much of a bad spot, but it is fair notice, after all.
The cynic in me says a) the reason they like me so much is that nobody else applied for the job, nobody else was desperate enough to take the job at what they offered, and no one else would put up with the added duties (over and above selling) at a low rate plus commission..for example, why do anything but sell, when that's the only way to get yourself over minimum wage? If I had gotten as far as trying to help them update their inventory system, they would have been getting a hell of a good deal.
Two week countown to leaving Co-op, one month until leaving the paper route..changes comin'. Oh yeah, did my first paper run in the rain this morning, made me wish I was giving it up yesterday. But, as a friend once said, I'm not made of sugar, I can deal with it.
On my route, I visit neighbourhood cats, sidestep underground sprinklers, avoid broken steps and manouver around overgrown shrubbery. I also pass by many houses that don't sub to the paper.
One such house is, while not, in my opinion the nicest, but definitely the most expensive house in the area. Though a bungalow, it has the air of a mansion about it, with the 3 car garage, immaculate masonry, water feature and no-maintenance, completely fenced front yard. It is on a double lot, and considering our lots are pretty much normally double in this area, even our own, that's a lot of frontage. The house itself is two, maybe even three times the size of the regular bungalows around here, and I can't even see how far back the house goes.
At the entry to the interlocking-brick driveway (complete with pretentious granite lions on pedestals on either side) is an ugly-ass brass plaque, the only brass in sight, completely alien to the grey theme on the rest the house. This plaque states simply, the surname of the homeowner, in ugly capital letters.
FETTIG
The house and its "we have more money than anyone else on the street" tastes I can handle, even the lions and the cast iron, spike-top "keep out" fence. It matches the foreboding castle-look of the place. The plaque is godawful.
It says to me, "I am Fettig, and this is my mighty home. All praise me, mighty Fettig!" If Fettig wasn't such a weak name, I might not have such an issue with it.
Every day I walk by this, and I consider that if I had a portable welder, I could visit it in the middle of the night and unscrew his letters and weld on my own carefully chosen selection, taking the art of public-sign-letter-rearrangement to a new, permanent level.
Which reminds me of my favourite, seen about a year, maybe two years ago, while driving by the under-renovation MacEwan South campus. The old letters that spelled "Grant MacEwan Community College" had been removed and left beside the building, with "Community" having been dropped a few years ago from the official title. On a drive by, I saw that they had been moved around on the ground to spell
Cat Meat gang
Whoever did it, I will always remember your work.
I have given my noice to the newspaper..thanks for the few bucks and the good excercise, it was fun, seeya later. July 2 will be my last day up at 4:30 AM, as it coincides with the end of a two-week collection period, the closest one to the Florida departure. Depending on how sleep deprived the route will leave me once I have the RCMP and either London Drugs or Co-op at the same time, I had considered just taking the two weeks off for the trip, and keeping the route up until maybe October, but the deciding factor is the collecting.
Most of the subscribers are "paid in office", which is how it should be, as it is more convenient for everyone involved. But, this being an older age group town, it seems seniors would rather maintain "the old days" where the paperboy comes by every two weeks to collect. There is also a healthy smattering of younger, paycheck-to-paycheck homeowners, who seem to have trouble scraping up $7.40 at a time for two-weeks worth of papers, let alone trying to pay up a month or three in advance.
Collecting is a pain. People aren't home, they don't have any money, they want to pay cash instead of check, therefore I need to bring change with me..feh. Who needs it? One of my subscribers (whom we call Crazy Larry, he of the handshake that can crush billiard balls and other people's hands alike) gave me a good idea while I was collecting..he prefers to leave his payment in his mailbox for me to pick up every months or so (and he pays a few weeks in advance.) He tips pretty good too, wish they all did, to make up for the rest of the aggravation.
But I digress..I made up some notes last time to drop off to the subs I did not collect from in person, asking them to do the same, and that worked pretty fine. This time, I'm not even bothering with going door to door, and jumping right to the notes and envelopes. We'll see how that works, starting tomorrow.
It only makes sense. I'm at their houses between 4:30 and 5:30 AM every day anyways, why bother going back and trying to catch them in the evenings, when both they and I probably have things we'd all rather be doing.
Besides, I can pretty much categorize the collect subs into the following-
1) friendly and nice to deal with, 2) rude and unpleasant and 3) friggin weirdos.
