So, it's been quite a while since I've done an in-depth post about what's going on in my life, so I'm going to try to provide a brief history of what I've been up to.
So, I was working at Wal-Mart, doing overnight stocking on the grocery side of the store. I really liked it, for a few reasons. First, I didn't really have to deal with any customers at all. Well, I did occasionally, but it was stuff like "Hey dude, where's the Gatorade?" "Aisle six, right side, halfway down the aisle after the Kool-Aid." Usually, two to three of those a night, more on Fridays and Saturdays. The time period was great - 10 pm to 7 (8/9/10) am, which was fantastic. Work all night, sleep all day. I loved it. Had two days off, which didn't change from week to week. I was working with Matt, which meant we never had scheduling conflicts (at least, not work-based) for playing racquetball, and it made transportation fairly simple. There was even a cute girl, Robyn, to look at from time to time.
However, there were some definite downsides. First, we were constantly understaffed. I mean, systemically and intentionally. (In a related side-note, they've recently laid off even more people, causing massive understaffing throughout the entire store. Productivity has suffered as a result.) We were often running behind due to our lack of sufficient people. Of course, management didn't see it that way - we were "slackers" and "needed to pick up our pace." Juan constantly threatened us, saying that when the remodel was over, we were going to all be replaced by the remodel workers that they hired. That kind of frustrated me. At some point, Javi called me on my cell, asking if I still wanted to work there (in desperation, while searching for a job before Wal-Mart called, I stopped by there to see if they would hire me back. Dave waffled on it, but eventually left the option up to Javi, who called me, though by the time he did, Wal-Mart had called, so I declined.). He told me that Bubba, the former GM of Buda, was now our GM, and that things were totally different. Also, Ashley (of Domino's fame) was also an assistant there now, which was really neat. I really like working with her. We talked about it briefly, and I told him I'd call him back.
As luck would have it, a few days later, we had a ton of freight come in, a few people call in, and Juan was in particularly rare form. Ambra had started working there at this point, and Mindy was gone. Well, at that point, I decided I'd had enough. I went to the bathroom, called Ashley, confirmed that they still had a place for me, and walked out. It was fun. I clocked out, went up to Juan, and handed him my discount card that had my clock in bar code on the opposite side. He was kind of caught off-guard, as a good walk-out will always catch management. It was awesome. He told me that he'd always confirmed (excused) my absences - I had like four or so - and that he certainly wasn't referring to me when he talked about how much we suck. I wasn't going to be dissuaded, though, and I left. I kind of apologized to Ambra on the way out, because she was still there with all this terrible freight to have to deal with. On the way out, I stopped to talk to Robyn, let her know I enjoyed working with her but that I was leaving, and that I thought she was fantastically cute.
The personnel lady called me a few days later about why I left. I told her about Juan, she said something like "Well, that's certainly not true." Not the point. "Well, he shouldn't have done that." Yeah, I believe I indicated I already thought as much by leaving. She asked me if I wanted to talk to Terry (our GM), I half-heartedly accepted, but never showed up.
The next day, I was talking to Javi and Bubba at Sonic. One week after that, I walked into my first day of Sonic. That was interesting, because only Javi, Ashley, Bubba, and a few people who were still there - Larry, Cruz, Pedro - knew who I was. Everyone else just saw this new guy - goofy looking - in a shirt and tie, walking around like he knew the store like the back of his hand. Which I do. Anyway. I knew it was going to suck going in to it, but I figured, hey, Javi and Ashley are there, so how bad could it really be?
I quickly became acquainted with the new crew, which was in some ways better, some ways worse than the old crew I dealt with. Well, the old crew was probably better in most respects. I won't go too much into specifics, but there were some very constant things that really defined the new crew. Whining, for one thing. Attitude problems, for another. There were a few people I really despised, and a few people I really liked (Emily, Ashley S, Katie). Things started off pretty good. I started getting around 70 hours a week, which was nice, since it amounted to a FUCKTON of overtime, and very nice paychecks.
Then Ashley left.
That really, really, really sucked. I was really sad that she left, but I totally understand her decision to leave. She was really frustrated, since she had only wanted to be part time, and she hadn't worked less than 50 hours on any week since she started. She felt that either Bubba or upper management, whoever was responsible for it, just wasn't doing enough to get us more assistants, and Bubba kept scheduling her a ton (more on this later). That, and how frustrating and stressful of a job it is to begin with, made her leave. We didn't get another manager or anything for a quite a while, and we had a bit of a staffing crisis for a while. We got through that.
Then Javi left. That was really the beginning of the end for me, as well. Javi's last week, I worked 90 hours without a day off. Now, I was used to 70 hours a week with one day off, and that was okay. However, 90/0 wasn't really okay. Well, it would have been okay, but Bubba didn't see fit to warn me or anything. I mean, he knew about it as early as Sunday morning, possibly earlier. I wish he would have warned me or something, since he wasn't releasing the schedule for the week until Monday afternoon, which was also really frustrating. So I had to take this annoying Serv-Safe class (8 hours, 90 multiple-choice question test, test took about six and a half minutes), then go in and close afterwards. That was alright, since the early draft of the schedule had me off on Tuesday. However, I walk in around 6:30, look at the schedule, and find out I don't have a day off that week. Yeah, I was kind of upset. I mean, I know a lot of people work seven days a week, at jobs much harder than mine. I just wish Bubba would have warned me or something.
So Javi left, and it was just me, Angie, and Bubba. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Bubba took over doing the order and the schedule. We'd run out of stuff a lot more - tater tots, ranch, barbecue sauce, M&M's, spoons, bananas, sugar, you name it. That, and people would get scheduled when they weren't available, which, to be fair, stopped for the most part eventually. There were several weeks, though, where a lot of people couldn't come in when they were scheduled and it was our fault. Good times. The other fun thing about having Bubba in charge of scheduling... well, it really had nothing to do with him being in charge of scheduling, but something systemic about him managing, was that he expected every employee to be 100% devoted to the Drive-In. I'm not talking about just while they're on the clock, which I agree with, but ALL THE TIME. Every time someone called in, he'd ask people to stay late, and come in early, and come in on their only day off, and would get annoyed when they couldn't. I mean, I'm talking about people who'd already worked eight, ten hours, or had worked six days and it was their only day off. We didn't seem to be pursuing the long term solution, hiring more people so we didn't have to keep asking people to work stupid amounts of hours.
So yeah, I have a few grievances with Bubba as a GM. I think part of it might be the difference between Buda and San Marcos. Most of our crew members, at least non-cook, are college kids, who aren't looking for 40 hours a week, and will work that much if you need them to, but didn't apply for that. They're going to highly value their time outside of work, and place a greater premium on social time and interaction then on being at work, hence the frustration with always, ALWAYS being called in. Now, most of them are more than happy to help out occasionally. However, it starts to get annoying, when every other day, you're asked to stay late or come in early, when every day you "have off", you're asked to come in for a bit. There's a line between "helping out" and "being expected to be overly devoted to your job". That's one of the reasons Ashley left, as well.
So yeah, I put in my two weeks notice almost two weeks ago, on Saturday the fourth. I walked out on Friday the tenth. Almost made it. I didn't really tell anyone that I was leaving, except for Aaron, the assistant we were borrowing from Montopolis (who was a friend of Bubba's) a few days a week. That week, we finally had a new assistant start; he was an ex-GM from Round Rock or something.
Yeah, I feel pretty bad about walking out. Sort of. I mean, not really. I was really pissed off. Oh, yeah, forgot to mention, Sergio got the store, and called to offer me an MIT position. So I took that; I'll be starting there in a week. That's fun.
So that's where I am in terms of work. On to other matters.
I moved out of Les Chateaux a month or so after starting at Sonic. Moved back home instead of getting a 3-bedroom place with Ambra and David, decided to go back to school and the cheap rent offered at home would be a huge help towards that goal. I'm just now, three months later, that I'm finally starting to move in and get everything unpacked. I'm almost done there. Janelle moved out the other day, that was interesting. Not just into a dorm for the semester, but into a four bedroom apartment at University Springs with three dudes. That's cool. Spent Monday picking her up from the airport, then helping her move out. Got a decent entertainment center out of the deal, so I came out ahead.
Haven't talked to Lilie in, oh, probably two months now. I was going up to Austin every day off to play DDR and/or ITG2, and I'd usually call her before or during to see if she was around to see if she'd like to meet up, say hi, that kind of thing. The first time, I actually got a hold of her, and she didn't really seem very enthusiastic or anything. Every subsequent time, no answer whatsoever. A few weeks of that, and no reply whatsoever to any IMs/phone calls/emails, and I got the hint.
So yeah, I've already put in my application at SWT. I got re-accepted as well, so that's neat. I just have to go in for an academic advising appointment, then I'll be good to go. I'm starting in the Spring, and I'm pretty sure of what classes I'd like to take - Discrete I, Data Structures, Chem I, whatever CS course is next in my progression, and possibly Probability, depending on scheduling.
Oh, I sold my WoW account to David. Just didn't have the time working 70 hours a week, usually in 12-14 hour days. That, and the internet connection here SUCKED. It's getting better; we've upgraded our connection, and are on our third modem. So, we'll see. I'm contemplating buying it back, but I want to see how things go at Domino's first. Oh, Gina marked me down as non-rehireable, so that's fun. Eileen let Sergio rehire me anyway, so that's cool.
I think that's a sufficient return to blogging. More to come as updates warrant.
DJ Smooth -- DUI 091406
Showing posts with label apartment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label apartment. Show all posts
2007-08-17
2006-11-13
The kisses of the sun were sweet; I didn't blink
So my three day weekend ends in like thirteen hours. I don't know that I got anything notable accomplished. Truck registered and/or inspected? Nope. Room cleaned? Nope. I did play some WoW and get Femaledwarf up to 25 (Really close to 26, I could get that level before going in to work, if I felt the urge). I did vacuum the living room and mop the kitchen, which I suppose isn't completely insubstantial. It's something.
Wait!
In my defense, I went down the truck registration place Friday morning to do my registration, but they were closed for Veteran's Day, so I wasn't able to do it. I'll probably wait 'til Thursday, when I get paid, and will be running some other errands anyway.
I'm currently scheduled for nine days straight, but they don't like it when you work seven in a row, so they'll be changing my schedule around (again) to prevent that from happening. Hopefully, this will lead to having Saturday off, so I can go to the hockey game with Bambi and Mom on my birthday. I get to bring a guest as well. I'd really, really like to bring Lilie along; she lives in Austin, and likes hockey to boot. I don't know how well her and Mom get along, if they really like each other, Bam as well. It might end up being a moot point if i have to work Saturday night anyway, since it's up in the air if I'll be going if I do.
Mom asked me something earlier - she asked me if this is where I thought I'd be at 24.
Frankly, no, it's not.
I feel like somewhat of a failure. If not for a series of bad choices on my part, I could have been out of college for two and a half years (give or take a semester) ago, in a real job, working on building a real life. Right now, I feel like I'm just treading water, moving from moment to moment with no real goals or plan. I mean, I know where I'd like to be, and I have a vague idea of how to get there. It's just a matter of fighting the apathy that's been such a defining characteristic of my life the last five and a half years. The only thing I can of that's positive about the entire situation is that I have moved out, I'm kind of living on my own, earning a living. It's a start? I guess? of course, having Mom as one of my top choices for roommate in May kind of potentially negates that as well, although if it makes it easier to get back in school, it'll be worth it. I'm just not sure if it would, and it would definitely be a step backwards in other directions.
Then there's this whole thing with Lilie. It's pushing two and a half years since we've met. I reviewed most of our relationship, relived a lot of memories when I was going back through my 750 posts and putting tags on all of them; it's been the same situation almost the entire time, with a few exceptions: me being hopelessly in love with her, her not being sure how she feels about me, and the intimacy we tend to share whenever we're together serving to confuse the situation that much more. She remarked earlier that I've changed a fair amount since she'd met me, and I think it's reflected in our relationship, which has become a lot more stable, more comfortable, less confusing. There's any amount of repetitive analysis I could do about our history and relationship, but I've done it enough times. Too many. I know the rhetoric by heart at this point, and it doesn't really clarify anything. I think we'll continue along the course we're on now, which is a great one, to be sure. She's become a huge advocate of me moving in with her and Rose, now that she understands that I'm alright how we are, who she is, all that stuff.
I hate putting it like this, making it seem like an afterthought or something, but it'd be great living with Rose as well. I love her just as much, if in a different way, and really miss not seeing her very often and not getting to talk to her very much. As weird as it was when she lived with David and me, it was great seeing her every day. We clash occasionally, usually when one of us is really depressed, and the other one is feeling pissy and doesn't want to deal with it, but that kind of spat doesn't last too terribly long.
So yes, other than a few issues, these two, in no particular order, are my top choice for living companions in May.
Moving on.
Things I still want to talk about:
Note: One of those probably won't happen. I'll let you figure out which one it is. (Hint: I like breasts.)
Also, if this post seems sporadic, it's because I'm lying in bed, watching one of the top five cartoons of all times, Rocko's Modern Life. (The other four, in no particular order, are Transformers (Generation One), The Angry Beavers, and two other ones that I'm not going to disclose at this time, because I don't feel like it's in our national interest. Hey, it works for the president, as it's about time I started exercising my privileges as Supreme Allied Commander of Dinosaur Moonbase 2.)
ATC -- Around the World
The kisses of the sun
Were sweet I didn't blink
I let it in my eyes
Like an exotic drink
Wait!
In my defense, I went down the truck registration place Friday morning to do my registration, but they were closed for Veteran's Day, so I wasn't able to do it. I'll probably wait 'til Thursday, when I get paid, and will be running some other errands anyway.
I'm currently scheduled for nine days straight, but they don't like it when you work seven in a row, so they'll be changing my schedule around (again) to prevent that from happening. Hopefully, this will lead to having Saturday off, so I can go to the hockey game with Bambi and Mom on my birthday. I get to bring a guest as well. I'd really, really like to bring Lilie along; she lives in Austin, and likes hockey to boot. I don't know how well her and Mom get along, if they really like each other, Bam as well. It might end up being a moot point if i have to work Saturday night anyway, since it's up in the air if I'll be going if I do.
Mom asked me something earlier - she asked me if this is where I thought I'd be at 24.
Frankly, no, it's not.
I feel like somewhat of a failure. If not for a series of bad choices on my part, I could have been out of college for two and a half years (give or take a semester) ago, in a real job, working on building a real life. Right now, I feel like I'm just treading water, moving from moment to moment with no real goals or plan. I mean, I know where I'd like to be, and I have a vague idea of how to get there. It's just a matter of fighting the apathy that's been such a defining characteristic of my life the last five and a half years. The only thing I can of that's positive about the entire situation is that I have moved out, I'm kind of living on my own, earning a living. It's a start? I guess? of course, having Mom as one of my top choices for roommate in May kind of potentially negates that as well, although if it makes it easier to get back in school, it'll be worth it. I'm just not sure if it would, and it would definitely be a step backwards in other directions.
Then there's this whole thing with Lilie. It's pushing two and a half years since we've met. I reviewed most of our relationship, relived a lot of memories when I was going back through my 750 posts and putting tags on all of them; it's been the same situation almost the entire time, with a few exceptions: me being hopelessly in love with her, her not being sure how she feels about me, and the intimacy we tend to share whenever we're together serving to confuse the situation that much more. She remarked earlier that I've changed a fair amount since she'd met me, and I think it's reflected in our relationship, which has become a lot more stable, more comfortable, less confusing. There's any amount of repetitive analysis I could do about our history and relationship, but I've done it enough times. Too many. I know the rhetoric by heart at this point, and it doesn't really clarify anything. I think we'll continue along the course we're on now, which is a great one, to be sure. She's become a huge advocate of me moving in with her and Rose, now that she understands that I'm alright how we are, who she is, all that stuff.
I hate putting it like this, making it seem like an afterthought or something, but it'd be great living with Rose as well. I love her just as much, if in a different way, and really miss not seeing her very often and not getting to talk to her very much. As weird as it was when she lived with David and me, it was great seeing her every day. We clash occasionally, usually when one of us is really depressed, and the other one is feeling pissy and doesn't want to deal with it, but that kind of spat doesn't last too terribly long.
So yes, other than a few issues, these two, in no particular order, are my top choice for living companions in May.
Moving on.
Things I still want to talk about:
- People at work that annoy me - Brenda, Conner, and I'm sure there're others
- Running into Kenny and Jason after getting off from work the other night
- Lilie's breasts
- A 5 year plan, complete with incremental steps, to getting my life back on track
Note: One of those probably won't happen. I'll let you figure out which one it is. (Hint: I like breasts.)
Also, if this post seems sporadic, it's because I'm lying in bed, watching one of the top five cartoons of all times, Rocko's Modern Life. (The other four, in no particular order, are Transformers (Generation One), The Angry Beavers, and two other ones that I'm not going to disclose at this time, because I don't feel like it's in our national interest. Hey, it works for the president, as it's about time I started exercising my privileges as Supreme Allied Commander of Dinosaur Moonbase 2.)
ATC -- Around the World
The kisses of the sun
Were sweet I didn't blink
I let it in my eyes
Like an exotic drink
2006-11-05
You wanna get mad, bitch, I don't give a damn
Let's see if I can't do some crazy updating.
I've worked at Walmart now for something like two weeks. It's actually three, but that first week contained only my NHO, so I tend not to count it. In any case, I've now had two full weeks (5 days each) of actual, full shifts (10 - ~8-ish). I feel like I've started to grow accustomed to the job, the routine, and can really begin looking at it with confidence.
The basic job itself is incredibly simple - we take freight out from the back on pallets, break the pallets apart onto carts, take the carts down the shelves and put the product on the shelves, then make the shelves look pretty. It's just... they rarely give us enough people - 3 or 4 when we need 6 or 7. Whatever, I don't mind staying later to finish up the job - I'm scheduled for 40 hours, so anything afterwards is time and a half. We're not supposed to get overtime, and make every effort to cut hours later in the week if we go over earlier.
That doesn't happen on the grocery side.
See, when they originally called me, they didn't really say much, just "overnight stocker." I learned during my NHO that there's the 'grocery' side, and the G(eneral) M(erchandise) side, and that I was going to be GM. A week later, when I finally go to have my first shift, they put me on grocery. I don't really care, personally, except that Matt's trying to get me moved to electronics, which would be a slight pay raise and play to my strengths.
Anyway.
I definitely like doing this over fast food. There are a number of advantages to this job over my previous ones (while still allowing it to be a menial, entry-level job). First and foremost, I'm not dealing with food. Well, that's not *entirely* true - I am, but it's in boxes and jars, and I'm just putting it on shelves, not dealing with it directly. So I'm not around food, and I don't despise the thought of cooking when I get home. Good all around, there. Not only that, but instead of cooking food, I'm moving around (sometimes heavy) boxes around all day, which is also nice. I come home pretty tired physically, which is nice as well, in a weird sort of way. I was dead sore the first day, but I've started taking really long, hot showers after work, and stretching out in the shower, and I haven't been sore since. Oh! I also don't have to deal with customers. Well, I kind of do. Obviously, what we're doing is directly for the customers, and we have to take that into consideration. During the first two hours of our shift or so, there's usually a decent number of people still in the store, so we have to work around them. And I get the occasional question about where specific items are located. But that's nothing compared to the level of customer interaction I had to deal with at Sonic and (especially) Domino's. The schedule is really nice too - Domino's was evening to late night, this is night to morning. I usually end up sleeping from 11-ish to 6-ish (highly variant, though). Also, they stop playing those annoying commercials around midnight and don't resume until 6-ish, so I don't have to put up with them for the vast majority of my shift. They also play much more recent, much better music. Still very few songs I like, but still moving in the right direction. Of course, it sucks when they resume normal music/commercials near the end of the shift, when I'm tired, ready to go home, and having management start throwing all these extra things at me. Anyway.
They also have a demo of Guitar Hero set up on a really nice tv and 5.1 stereo system in front of the book/magazine area, and I get to play that my entire lunch hour (2-3 am); additionally, I usually hang around for half an hour or so after work to unwind and play some more.
Of course, there are some bad things about the job as well. First and foremost, my coworkers. I mean, Matt's there, which is really cool. Apparently, and I didn't know this until my second shift, but Sara works there as well. Sara is FUCKING AWESOME. Super cute, super fun to hang out with... only thing is that she's a lesbian.
I should really clarify that last statement. I certainly have no issues with anybody based solely on their sexuality. It just sucks meeting a super awesome girl and finding out you already have no chance with her, ever. Period. We're still good friends and all, and I certainly treasure our friendship.
Anyway.
Back to our current topic: Coworkers, as a bad part of working at Walmart; the good exceptions.
Mindy apparently still works there as well, but her shift is something like 2-10 or something weird like that, which means I never have to deal with her, ever. Almost ever. Tangent: I saw her baby. He takes after his father.
Moving on. Those are the good coworkers. I don't much care for the majority of the rest; they're not really my peers. Janelle argues this point, saying that they are, by virtue of being my coworkers, my peers. Perhaps. But not my intellectual, social, educational, etc., peers. I couldn't hold the types of conversations that I used to have with Mike or Ray, for example, with them. A few of them really get on my nerves, too. Of course, that's somewhat mitigated by the fact that I don't really have to deal with them constantly, as I'm stocking an aisle by myself or whatever. But looking at it, I doubt I'll ever meet someone like Lilie or Leslie working there. It's not that I'm necessarily looking, but it's something that's crossed my mind.
Anyhoo.
I guess it's an okay job, all told. There've been a lot of college kids doing their shopping while I'm there, including cute girls in their jammies, which is nice. Of course, I have to sit there and listen to them have a ten minute conversation in which they express their disbelief of the sheer number of pop-tart varieties available. Sure, there are a bunch, but come on! Move on. Move! Go!
Lemme see. Ooh, new baby report:
Kristina Galpin: Boy
Christina Zarate: Unknown
Montana (Jarrod's little sister): Six months pregnant
C'mon, there's more to do in this town.
Anyway.
So I'm looking at what options I have for living in May. I could always renew here with Ambra, but I don't know what she's doing, if that's even on the table, much less viable. Moving on. David seems happy living on his own, and Jarrod seems happy in his current situation, so those two are basically out. I don't really want to live on my own. First, it's more expensive, and second, while I don't like a lot of social interaction, I need SOMETHING. When I was stuck in the apartment for three days with no vehicle and David was gone, I went NUTS. There isn't really anyone at work I think I'd be able to stand living with. I've talked briefly with Mom, and she'd have no problems with me moving back into my room, but I don't really want to do that. I talked to Lilie, and she's somewhat amenable to the idea, though Rose counter-proposed all three of us getting a place together. That's an idea that bears at least some consideration.
Most of the cons involved are present whether I'm living with just Lilie or both of them, so I'll start with those. First, they are in Austin, and want to remain there. I'm in San Marcos, and have no immediate desire to leave. I just started a new job here, and while it's not a great job by any stretch of the imagination, leaving it in May would have me there for seven to eight months. I prefer to stay at jobs a little longer than that, but I suppose that listing "Moved to Austin" as my reason for leaving would alleviate that a little. But yeah, I'd have to look for a new job, though I supposed I could attempt to transfer Walmarts? I mean, commuting is definitely not an option, not with my current form of transportation. Second, and almost equal with the first, is that they're both heavy smokers. I, of course, loathe smoking with every fiber of my being. I can't stand the sight of it, the smell of it, the thought of it, and especially the trash it leaves behind. I don't mind doing a pretty good share of chores, but that's not something I ever want to have to deal with. When I mentioned that to Lilie, she said something like "Well, we can always go outside" and referenced that she never smokes while she's here. The latter is true, but I feel somewhat irrelevant; the first, well, it doesn't sound like a workable idea. I don't like being a burden on people, causing them to make drastic changes on account of me. That's not something I've talked to Rose about at all. The third major thing is their cats. I don't want to live with cats, especially not in an apartment. They smell. They poop. They leave hair and poop and stuff in places that aren't their litterbox. None of those are issues that I particularly want to deal with.
The funny thing is that even with those three issues, they're still my top choice right now, just by process of elimination.
I mean, there are a few other things that I might have to deal with, most notably the history Lilie and I share, but that's something I'm basically over. I mean, her dating other guys, bringing them home for the night, having sexy phone conversations with them - all things I'm confident I can deal with.
The best part, though, is that I'd rarely have to sleep alone.
Tila Tequila -- Fuck Ya Man
I've worked at Walmart now for something like two weeks. It's actually three, but that first week contained only my NHO, so I tend not to count it. In any case, I've now had two full weeks (5 days each) of actual, full shifts (10 - ~8-ish). I feel like I've started to grow accustomed to the job, the routine, and can really begin looking at it with confidence.
The basic job itself is incredibly simple - we take freight out from the back on pallets, break the pallets apart onto carts, take the carts down the shelves and put the product on the shelves, then make the shelves look pretty. It's just... they rarely give us enough people - 3 or 4 when we need 6 or 7. Whatever, I don't mind staying later to finish up the job - I'm scheduled for 40 hours, so anything afterwards is time and a half. We're not supposed to get overtime, and make every effort to cut hours later in the week if we go over earlier.
That doesn't happen on the grocery side.
See, when they originally called me, they didn't really say much, just "overnight stocker." I learned during my NHO that there's the 'grocery' side, and the G(eneral) M(erchandise) side, and that I was going to be GM. A week later, when I finally go to have my first shift, they put me on grocery. I don't really care, personally, except that Matt's trying to get me moved to electronics, which would be a slight pay raise and play to my strengths.
Anyway.
I definitely like doing this over fast food. There are a number of advantages to this job over my previous ones (while still allowing it to be a menial, entry-level job). First and foremost, I'm not dealing with food. Well, that's not *entirely* true - I am, but it's in boxes and jars, and I'm just putting it on shelves, not dealing with it directly. So I'm not around food, and I don't despise the thought of cooking when I get home. Good all around, there. Not only that, but instead of cooking food, I'm moving around (sometimes heavy) boxes around all day, which is also nice. I come home pretty tired physically, which is nice as well, in a weird sort of way. I was dead sore the first day, but I've started taking really long, hot showers after work, and stretching out in the shower, and I haven't been sore since. Oh! I also don't have to deal with customers. Well, I kind of do. Obviously, what we're doing is directly for the customers, and we have to take that into consideration. During the first two hours of our shift or so, there's usually a decent number of people still in the store, so we have to work around them. And I get the occasional question about where specific items are located. But that's nothing compared to the level of customer interaction I had to deal with at Sonic and (especially) Domino's. The schedule is really nice too - Domino's was evening to late night, this is night to morning. I usually end up sleeping from 11-ish to 6-ish (highly variant, though). Also, they stop playing those annoying commercials around midnight and don't resume until 6-ish, so I don't have to put up with them for the vast majority of my shift. They also play much more recent, much better music. Still very few songs I like, but still moving in the right direction. Of course, it sucks when they resume normal music/commercials near the end of the shift, when I'm tired, ready to go home, and having management start throwing all these extra things at me. Anyway.
They also have a demo of Guitar Hero set up on a really nice tv and 5.1 stereo system in front of the book/magazine area, and I get to play that my entire lunch hour (2-3 am); additionally, I usually hang around for half an hour or so after work to unwind and play some more.
Of course, there are some bad things about the job as well. First and foremost, my coworkers. I mean, Matt's there, which is really cool. Apparently, and I didn't know this until my second shift, but Sara works there as well. Sara is FUCKING AWESOME. Super cute, super fun to hang out with... only thing is that she's a lesbian.
I should really clarify that last statement. I certainly have no issues with anybody based solely on their sexuality. It just sucks meeting a super awesome girl and finding out you already have no chance with her, ever. Period. We're still good friends and all, and I certainly treasure our friendship.
Anyway.
Back to our current topic: Coworkers, as a bad part of working at Walmart; the good exceptions.
Mindy apparently still works there as well, but her shift is something like 2-10 or something weird like that, which means I never have to deal with her, ever. Almost ever. Tangent: I saw her baby. He takes after his father.
Moving on. Those are the good coworkers. I don't much care for the majority of the rest; they're not really my peers. Janelle argues this point, saying that they are, by virtue of being my coworkers, my peers. Perhaps. But not my intellectual, social, educational, etc., peers. I couldn't hold the types of conversations that I used to have with Mike or Ray, for example, with them. A few of them really get on my nerves, too. Of course, that's somewhat mitigated by the fact that I don't really have to deal with them constantly, as I'm stocking an aisle by myself or whatever. But looking at it, I doubt I'll ever meet someone like Lilie or Leslie working there. It's not that I'm necessarily looking, but it's something that's crossed my mind.
Anyhoo.
I guess it's an okay job, all told. There've been a lot of college kids doing their shopping while I'm there, including cute girls in their jammies, which is nice. Of course, I have to sit there and listen to them have a ten minute conversation in which they express their disbelief of the sheer number of pop-tart varieties available. Sure, there are a bunch, but come on! Move on. Move! Go!
Lemme see. Ooh, new baby report:
Kristina Galpin: Boy
Christina Zarate: Unknown
Montana (Jarrod's little sister): Six months pregnant
C'mon, there's more to do in this town.
Anyway.
So I'm looking at what options I have for living in May. I could always renew here with Ambra, but I don't know what she's doing, if that's even on the table, much less viable. Moving on. David seems happy living on his own, and Jarrod seems happy in his current situation, so those two are basically out. I don't really want to live on my own. First, it's more expensive, and second, while I don't like a lot of social interaction, I need SOMETHING. When I was stuck in the apartment for three days with no vehicle and David was gone, I went NUTS. There isn't really anyone at work I think I'd be able to stand living with. I've talked briefly with Mom, and she'd have no problems with me moving back into my room, but I don't really want to do that. I talked to Lilie, and she's somewhat amenable to the idea, though Rose counter-proposed all three of us getting a place together. That's an idea that bears at least some consideration.
Most of the cons involved are present whether I'm living with just Lilie or both of them, so I'll start with those. First, they are in Austin, and want to remain there. I'm in San Marcos, and have no immediate desire to leave. I just started a new job here, and while it's not a great job by any stretch of the imagination, leaving it in May would have me there for seven to eight months. I prefer to stay at jobs a little longer than that, but I suppose that listing "Moved to Austin" as my reason for leaving would alleviate that a little. But yeah, I'd have to look for a new job, though I supposed I could attempt to transfer Walmarts? I mean, commuting is definitely not an option, not with my current form of transportation. Second, and almost equal with the first, is that they're both heavy smokers. I, of course, loathe smoking with every fiber of my being. I can't stand the sight of it, the smell of it, the thought of it, and especially the trash it leaves behind. I don't mind doing a pretty good share of chores, but that's not something I ever want to have to deal with. When I mentioned that to Lilie, she said something like "Well, we can always go outside" and referenced that she never smokes while she's here. The latter is true, but I feel somewhat irrelevant; the first, well, it doesn't sound like a workable idea. I don't like being a burden on people, causing them to make drastic changes on account of me. That's not something I've talked to Rose about at all. The third major thing is their cats. I don't want to live with cats, especially not in an apartment. They smell. They poop. They leave hair and poop and stuff in places that aren't their litterbox. None of those are issues that I particularly want to deal with.
The funny thing is that even with those three issues, they're still my top choice right now, just by process of elimination.
I mean, there are a few other things that I might have to deal with, most notably the history Lilie and I share, but that's something I'm basically over. I mean, her dating other guys, bringing them home for the night, having sexy phone conversations with them - all things I'm confident I can deal with.
The best part, though, is that I'd rarely have to sleep alone.
Tila Tequila -- Fuck Ya Man
2006-06-11
Thought you would treat me right
So, been a while since my last post. It will come to no surprise that I didn't do the followup post on Lilie that I had referenced, but it really wouldn't have been worth reading anyway. Or rather, to contrast it with everything else on here, it wouldn't have been interesting at all. Wait, that's not contrast. Damn.
Anyway.
So yeah, I'm basically moved into the new place. It's pretty cool so far. Got the couch set up, got the TV hooked up with cable and the PS2. It's nice having composite input, instead of having to depend on RF adapaters. I even picked up an input box, so I won't have to depend on them anymore. I can hook up the N64 as well, whenever I have an urge to play Blast Corps or Ogre Battle 64. I still plan on hooking up my old box and having a media server, but I have to buy a hard drive to do that, and probably the center of a stereo system, so I'll be waiting a bit on that.
So yeah, the move. Came down to the last minute, as usual. Had those five days off in a row, and didn't quite put to them as efficient use as I could have. But yeah, our move-out day was Saturday. Naturally, when I left for my 5-10 shift Saturday night, I wasn't done yet. Of course, to be fair, David wasn't either. He talked to the lady in the front office, and she said that as long as the keys were in the drop box when she checked it Sunday morning, it was fine. We were guessing around eight am, that was our goal. The plan was that I'd meet up with David at the apartment after work, we'd finish up.
Of course, it didn't happen.
I ended up having to close, which wouldn't have normally been a big deal, except I was already tired, and was planning on finishing up moving after work. David came by about twelve thirty, after calling me a record *three* times. So yeah, we talked about what we were going to do; he was going to finish most of the cleaning, get all of his stuff out, and leave his keys somewhere for me - either come back by the store and drop them off, or something. It got kind of busy at close - not terribly busy, but busy enough that I couldn't really do any preclosing. I helped the drivers get out of there, did money. I just had inventory left, but I just couldn't bring myself to get up and do it. Most frustrating. *Finally* got up and did it, got out of there at like five. Yeah, I know. Shut up. Came home to change and stuff. I actually dozed for like half an hour or so. However, I came to fairly soon, ran over to mom's, grabbed the vacuum cleaner, and got back to the Cedars. I was really, really tired and frustrated by that point, just wanted to be done with the whole damn thing.
Of course, at this point, I'd like to interject that yes, I know it was my fault that I was having to scramble at the last minute to get this stuff done, that I had more than enough time to have taken care of all this at a leisurely pace during my vacation, and that the fact that I squandered that time alloted to me was completely my fault, and that the negative experience I was going through at that point can be directly attributed to the aforementioned squandering. I know that, and do not shirk from responsibility for my actions, my decisions.
Moving on.
I got everything out, got the last cleaning up taken care of, got out of there. I locked the door for the last time at 7:52 (remember, our goal was 8 am), and dropped the key in the drop box at 7:59. Last minute? Oh yeah.
Drove back to Mom's to return the vacuum cleaner, she was actually up. I sat and talked with her for a little bit. It was embarrasing, but I actually broke down in tears in front of her - I was just so tired, frustrated, etc. She understood, though - "I guess I won't be seeing you this Sunday, huh?"
I love her.
So yeah, moved in at the new place. Kinda. The stuff from that last load is still out in the back of my truck. Well, most of it - I'm slowly moving it in, one piece at a time. The lamp came in; that's now in the living room. I donated the bust of Mozart to work, since I didn't want it anymore. It's sitting in the office right now. Most of my boxes aren't unpacked; I've been pulling out what I need, when I need it. I've got two and a half days off, though, starting Monday, and I hope to make some progress on those days. I'm fairly happy with my room - there's curtains in front of the window, so it stays fairly dark even in the middle of the day, which is nice. Overhead fan, also nice. There are a few things that are less than perfect, though. My desk is in my room, which is fine, but we ended up having to put it in the corner next to the bed, so my back is facing the door. I know it's silly, but I don't like having my back to the door. Also, Ambra's room is right next to mine, so I can't play music very loud when she's asleep (I learned that one the hard way). And, I keep hearing that out pool is absolutely terrible.
Overall, though, not too bad.
Let's see, what else...? Hmm. Oh yeah, work. Work's, well, interesting. I have one closing shift this week, which starts in about nine hours. I've been working late inside shifts, mainly with Gina closing, which hasn't been terribly fun. Tuesday night, I closed with Gina; I set the till and did a deposit before I left. She calls me after close, 'cause we were a hundred and fourteen dollars short. Her exact words: "Do you want to tell me where it is?" That's highly, highly offensive. Now, certainly, that amount of money short is something to be concerned about, I don't challenge that at all. But phrasing it like that sounds *very* much like an accusation. Unintentional, I hope, but still. It ended up being a mistake Jimmy made when he checked out a driver, coupled with Jenn entering in her deposit with two digits transposed.
We had an MIT rally on Thursday at Dave & Buster's in San Antonio. Total joke. I rode down with Joe; Sergio and Jenn also went from San Marcos. Jess sent Mel and Trevor. Good times. Let's see... we split up into four groups and did the 'Domino's Cheer', which I didn't participate in. Well, to observers, I did. We sat while Jenn talked to us about various topics - the OER form, the new MIT eval form, the hiring process, leading our shifts, etc. By "talked to us", I really mean "read powerpoint slides". Joe said on the way down there that he was going to walk out if that was the case, but he didn't. They served us some lunch, but I didn't eat any, since I had some Taco Cabana that morning. Stan said we could go play in the game room as long as we were back on time. Sergio and I both did - they had PIU 7th edition. I hate PIU - I have the hardest time telling the difference between jumps and runs, since there's no color differentiation to help you, only spacing, and I have a tendency to hold my head at odd angles which makes it hard to tell when things are aligned horizontally. But yeah, came back into the meeting room all sweaty, which was kinda funny. Walked up to the bar to get some water, and all the supervisors, Jenn, and Mike were all sitting there. Speaking of which, she (Eileen) started dancing a little during the break.
Horrifying.
We played Jeopardy at one point; I got one question right - name the five guiding principles, in order. There was also an auction. Top item was an Ipod Nano, which Jenn ended up winning; there were also five pairs of tickets to Fiesta Texas. Joe, Sergio, and I won one. Not a pair each, but one pair between the three of us. Still don't know how that one's going to work out. But yeah. Murph came up and talked a little bit at the end of the meeting. Nothing terribly impressive there.
Overall... blech.
We also had a mandatory meeting - I don't quite remember what day it was, though I'm pretty sure I closed that night - at like nine. We didn't know what it was about initially, though there was a rumor going on that they had found something objectionable on the cameras. That later turned out to be false. Everyone was there for once, which suprised me. Gina brought kolaches from Shipley's, and orange juice, so it wasn't a total loss. She addressed a few store-wide conerns while we waited on Eileen (who had called Gina to tell her to hold the meeting, and was leading it), who ran about five minutes late. She then dropped one word about what the meeting was going to be about - 'Myspace'.
I couldn't help but break out into laughter. Gina asked me to make sure I didn't do that in front of Eileen. I said I'd do what I could.
So Eileen got up and started talking. Overall, she was very vague, didn't really say anything specific. She talked about employees writing derogatory things about the company, their job, and customers on personal electronic things. She never said 'myspace' directly, but I'm fairly certain that's what she was talking about. She told Ambra that she had seen her myspaec profile (Not at the meeting. I'm just throwing things in randomly, 'cause I do that). She reminded us that that was strictly against company policy, made us re-sign the electronic use agreement form, and tried to feed us some TOTAL BULLSHIT about it being for our protection - that if some customer recognized themselves, they might get angry with a gun or sue us for slander or something. At this point, Emily raised her hand, and said something along the lines of "I really don't want to be a smartass, but it's only slander if it's spoken; it's libel if it's written, and it has to be untrue." Which is true - it has to be untrue, the person saying/writing it has to know it's untrue, and they have to have some sort of malicious intent. I didn't bother arguing that with Eileen, though. She also said at one point, "If you dislike your job that much, the door's right there."
As far as Joe and I can figure, someone at the office was browsing Myspace and came across an employee's page, which set off this whole thing. And, as usual, older people are rushing into things without trying to understand what they're dealing with. It's similiar to the MPAA and RIAA dealing with p2p networking and bittorrent - for the most part, they have no idea what they're dealing with, are trying normal tactics, and it isn't working.
IT'S CALLED VENTING, YOU IGNORANT JACKASSES!
I mean, I'll concede that an employee that isn't happy at their job isn't really a great employee. Well, it's not an optimal situation. But if that employee shows up every day, works diligently, and doesn't have any problems at work, does it matter if they go home and vent on their personal space? Okay, yeah, that can be a warning sign that they might quit one day or otherwise express their disgruntledness, but when you're dealing with every store in the company being understaffed, can you afford to wait and *only* have completely optimal situations?
So anyway.
Ambra finally stepped down as GM of Seguin. That's not too suprising. What's suprising is that it took her this long to do so. I was worried about her for a long time, when she'd break down in tears in frustration over the situation. She seems happier now though, which is important.
Well, she would, if the company would stop fucking her over. It's really, really frustrating to watch, since I can't really say anything about it. They won't let her work in Seguin anymore, since they don't like former GMs working in their old stores. In general, it's a fairly understandable rule - avoiding things like power struggles and awkwardness in general. Eileen herself proved the validity of this rule when she bitched to Gina about everything they had done to 'her' store after she left. So yeah, I can kind of understand the rule. But in this situation, I think an exception would be warranted. Jess (who took over Seguin, even though she just wants to come back to San Marcos) needs another driver, Ambra's willing to drive, knows the town well, and can swing to cover shifts, line, etc., when she's needed. She never really wanted Seguin in the first place, and was glad to no longer be there, so it's not like she'd be trying to hold on to the reigns of power or subconciously undermine Jess or anything. That, and she conferred with Jess a lot even when she was GM, so it's not like the employees would be confused with them both being in the store or anything.
To complicate matters, Eileen won't let Ambra come work in San Marcos, 'cause "we're dating" - which we're not. There's nothing between us, there never has been, and I highly doubt there ever will be. I mean, if I hadn't said anything *way* back when, this never would have come up in the first place. Admittedly, I feel kind of bad about it now. I mean, like half the company thinks we're dating, including most of the upper echelons of power. I'm sure us moving in together didn't do much to help quell those rumors. I personally don't care what people think about me, what they say about me, but it does bother me when that spills over to someone I care about. From our conversations, I gather that it doesn't really bother her either, but it still irks at me. I mean, if I wanted, I could go off the deep end and say that it's Chelsea all over again.
Luckily, I'm past that.
I hope.
Jojo -- Leave
Anyway.
So yeah, I'm basically moved into the new place. It's pretty cool so far. Got the couch set up, got the TV hooked up with cable and the PS2. It's nice having composite input, instead of having to depend on RF adapaters. I even picked up an input box, so I won't have to depend on them anymore. I can hook up the N64 as well, whenever I have an urge to play Blast Corps or Ogre Battle 64. I still plan on hooking up my old box and having a media server, but I have to buy a hard drive to do that, and probably the center of a stereo system, so I'll be waiting a bit on that.
So yeah, the move. Came down to the last minute, as usual. Had those five days off in a row, and didn't quite put to them as efficient use as I could have. But yeah, our move-out day was Saturday. Naturally, when I left for my 5-10 shift Saturday night, I wasn't done yet. Of course, to be fair, David wasn't either. He talked to the lady in the front office, and she said that as long as the keys were in the drop box when she checked it Sunday morning, it was fine. We were guessing around eight am, that was our goal. The plan was that I'd meet up with David at the apartment after work, we'd finish up.
Of course, it didn't happen.
I ended up having to close, which wouldn't have normally been a big deal, except I was already tired, and was planning on finishing up moving after work. David came by about twelve thirty, after calling me a record *three* times. So yeah, we talked about what we were going to do; he was going to finish most of the cleaning, get all of his stuff out, and leave his keys somewhere for me - either come back by the store and drop them off, or something. It got kind of busy at close - not terribly busy, but busy enough that I couldn't really do any preclosing. I helped the drivers get out of there, did money. I just had inventory left, but I just couldn't bring myself to get up and do it. Most frustrating. *Finally* got up and did it, got out of there at like five. Yeah, I know. Shut up. Came home to change and stuff. I actually dozed for like half an hour or so. However, I came to fairly soon, ran over to mom's, grabbed the vacuum cleaner, and got back to the Cedars. I was really, really tired and frustrated by that point, just wanted to be done with the whole damn thing.
Of course, at this point, I'd like to interject that yes, I know it was my fault that I was having to scramble at the last minute to get this stuff done, that I had more than enough time to have taken care of all this at a leisurely pace during my vacation, and that the fact that I squandered that time alloted to me was completely my fault, and that the negative experience I was going through at that point can be directly attributed to the aforementioned squandering. I know that, and do not shirk from responsibility for my actions, my decisions.
Moving on.
I got everything out, got the last cleaning up taken care of, got out of there. I locked the door for the last time at 7:52 (remember, our goal was 8 am), and dropped the key in the drop box at 7:59. Last minute? Oh yeah.
Drove back to Mom's to return the vacuum cleaner, she was actually up. I sat and talked with her for a little bit. It was embarrasing, but I actually broke down in tears in front of her - I was just so tired, frustrated, etc. She understood, though - "I guess I won't be seeing you this Sunday, huh?"
I love her.
So yeah, moved in at the new place. Kinda. The stuff from that last load is still out in the back of my truck. Well, most of it - I'm slowly moving it in, one piece at a time. The lamp came in; that's now in the living room. I donated the bust of Mozart to work, since I didn't want it anymore. It's sitting in the office right now. Most of my boxes aren't unpacked; I've been pulling out what I need, when I need it. I've got two and a half days off, though, starting Monday, and I hope to make some progress on those days. I'm fairly happy with my room - there's curtains in front of the window, so it stays fairly dark even in the middle of the day, which is nice. Overhead fan, also nice. There are a few things that are less than perfect, though. My desk is in my room, which is fine, but we ended up having to put it in the corner next to the bed, so my back is facing the door. I know it's silly, but I don't like having my back to the door. Also, Ambra's room is right next to mine, so I can't play music very loud when she's asleep (I learned that one the hard way). And, I keep hearing that out pool is absolutely terrible.
Overall, though, not too bad.
Let's see, what else...? Hmm. Oh yeah, work. Work's, well, interesting. I have one closing shift this week, which starts in about nine hours. I've been working late inside shifts, mainly with Gina closing, which hasn't been terribly fun. Tuesday night, I closed with Gina; I set the till and did a deposit before I left. She calls me after close, 'cause we were a hundred and fourteen dollars short. Her exact words: "Do you want to tell me where it is?" That's highly, highly offensive. Now, certainly, that amount of money short is something to be concerned about, I don't challenge that at all. But phrasing it like that sounds *very* much like an accusation. Unintentional, I hope, but still. It ended up being a mistake Jimmy made when he checked out a driver, coupled with Jenn entering in her deposit with two digits transposed.
We had an MIT rally on Thursday at Dave & Buster's in San Antonio. Total joke. I rode down with Joe; Sergio and Jenn also went from San Marcos. Jess sent Mel and Trevor. Good times. Let's see... we split up into four groups and did the 'Domino's Cheer', which I didn't participate in. Well, to observers, I did. We sat while Jenn talked to us about various topics - the OER form, the new MIT eval form, the hiring process, leading our shifts, etc. By "talked to us", I really mean "read powerpoint slides". Joe said on the way down there that he was going to walk out if that was the case, but he didn't. They served us some lunch, but I didn't eat any, since I had some Taco Cabana that morning. Stan said we could go play in the game room as long as we were back on time. Sergio and I both did - they had PIU 7th edition. I hate PIU - I have the hardest time telling the difference between jumps and runs, since there's no color differentiation to help you, only spacing, and I have a tendency to hold my head at odd angles which makes it hard to tell when things are aligned horizontally. But yeah, came back into the meeting room all sweaty, which was kinda funny. Walked up to the bar to get some water, and all the supervisors, Jenn, and Mike were all sitting there. Speaking of which, she (Eileen) started dancing a little during the break.
Horrifying.
We played Jeopardy at one point; I got one question right - name the five guiding principles, in order. There was also an auction. Top item was an Ipod Nano, which Jenn ended up winning; there were also five pairs of tickets to Fiesta Texas. Joe, Sergio, and I won one. Not a pair each, but one pair between the three of us. Still don't know how that one's going to work out. But yeah. Murph came up and talked a little bit at the end of the meeting. Nothing terribly impressive there.
Overall... blech.
We also had a mandatory meeting - I don't quite remember what day it was, though I'm pretty sure I closed that night - at like nine. We didn't know what it was about initially, though there was a rumor going on that they had found something objectionable on the cameras. That later turned out to be false. Everyone was there for once, which suprised me. Gina brought kolaches from Shipley's, and orange juice, so it wasn't a total loss. She addressed a few store-wide conerns while we waited on Eileen (who had called Gina to tell her to hold the meeting, and was leading it), who ran about five minutes late. She then dropped one word about what the meeting was going to be about - 'Myspace'.
I couldn't help but break out into laughter. Gina asked me to make sure I didn't do that in front of Eileen. I said I'd do what I could.
So Eileen got up and started talking. Overall, she was very vague, didn't really say anything specific. She talked about employees writing derogatory things about the company, their job, and customers on personal electronic things. She never said 'myspace' directly, but I'm fairly certain that's what she was talking about. She told Ambra that she had seen her myspaec profile (Not at the meeting. I'm just throwing things in randomly, 'cause I do that). She reminded us that that was strictly against company policy, made us re-sign the electronic use agreement form, and tried to feed us some TOTAL BULLSHIT about it being for our protection - that if some customer recognized themselves, they might get angry with a gun or sue us for slander or something. At this point, Emily raised her hand, and said something along the lines of "I really don't want to be a smartass, but it's only slander if it's spoken; it's libel if it's written, and it has to be untrue." Which is true - it has to be untrue, the person saying/writing it has to know it's untrue, and they have to have some sort of malicious intent. I didn't bother arguing that with Eileen, though. She also said at one point, "If you dislike your job that much, the door's right there."
As far as Joe and I can figure, someone at the office was browsing Myspace and came across an employee's page, which set off this whole thing. And, as usual, older people are rushing into things without trying to understand what they're dealing with. It's similiar to the MPAA and RIAA dealing with p2p networking and bittorrent - for the most part, they have no idea what they're dealing with, are trying normal tactics, and it isn't working.
IT'S CALLED VENTING, YOU IGNORANT JACKASSES!
I mean, I'll concede that an employee that isn't happy at their job isn't really a great employee. Well, it's not an optimal situation. But if that employee shows up every day, works diligently, and doesn't have any problems at work, does it matter if they go home and vent on their personal space? Okay, yeah, that can be a warning sign that they might quit one day or otherwise express their disgruntledness, but when you're dealing with every store in the company being understaffed, can you afford to wait and *only* have completely optimal situations?
So anyway.
Ambra finally stepped down as GM of Seguin. That's not too suprising. What's suprising is that it took her this long to do so. I was worried about her for a long time, when she'd break down in tears in frustration over the situation. She seems happier now though, which is important.
Well, she would, if the company would stop fucking her over. It's really, really frustrating to watch, since I can't really say anything about it. They won't let her work in Seguin anymore, since they don't like former GMs working in their old stores. In general, it's a fairly understandable rule - avoiding things like power struggles and awkwardness in general. Eileen herself proved the validity of this rule when she bitched to Gina about everything they had done to 'her' store after she left. So yeah, I can kind of understand the rule. But in this situation, I think an exception would be warranted. Jess (who took over Seguin, even though she just wants to come back to San Marcos) needs another driver, Ambra's willing to drive, knows the town well, and can swing to cover shifts, line, etc., when she's needed. She never really wanted Seguin in the first place, and was glad to no longer be there, so it's not like she'd be trying to hold on to the reigns of power or subconciously undermine Jess or anything. That, and she conferred with Jess a lot even when she was GM, so it's not like the employees would be confused with them both being in the store or anything.
To complicate matters, Eileen won't let Ambra come work in San Marcos, 'cause "we're dating" - which we're not. There's nothing between us, there never has been, and I highly doubt there ever will be. I mean, if I hadn't said anything *way* back when, this never would have come up in the first place. Admittedly, I feel kind of bad about it now. I mean, like half the company thinks we're dating, including most of the upper echelons of power. I'm sure us moving in together didn't do much to help quell those rumors. I personally don't care what people think about me, what they say about me, but it does bother me when that spills over to someone I care about. From our conversations, I gather that it doesn't really bother her either, but it still irks at me. I mean, if I wanted, I could go off the deep end and say that it's Chelsea all over again.
Luckily, I'm past that.
I hope.
Jojo -- Leave
2005-06-05
The club will be shaking, there we'll be waiting, 'cause I don't play nice, pt 2
Didn't expect to end that last post so abruptly, but I had to go. I'm actually writing this post on Sesami, the computer in the living room whose output is the TV, which means it's really, really hard to read the text. IF this post has a lot of spelling and punctuation errors, that's why. Get over it.
JD came over last night and we watched some MST3K, and I'm *still* copying over his collection. He has all of them. All 199. I've got the majority copied over, but the lest set is a huge pain in the ass, because neither David's nor my computer's DVD drives will read about 10 of the DVDs he has, but the media center will, so I have to do it all from across the room. Meh, could be worse. A lot worse. Went over for breakfast tacos at Mom's house earlier, that was cool. She keeps sending stuff my way, as she's adjusting cooking for two instead of three or four. Saw Lilie in her new car (the Shiny; he doesn't have a name yet) delivering pizza. Things are going very well with her right now, I'm really happy with where we are. Where we are now, which is different from where we were the last time we saw each other (it makes sense, trust me).
Work's been hell lately. Had two 50+ weeks in a row. This week, at least I have Sunday off, though I did have to work 6 am to 4 pm yesterday to get it. I originally asked for last night and today off because I thought Terri was going to be in town; it's probably just as well that she's not. Long story. But I'm enjoying the heck out of my day off. Going to dinner later with the family 'cause Janelle's leaving on Tuesday for a month and a day. David mounted the speakers yesterday (we were going to do it together, but I fell asleep and I guess he didn't feel like waiting until I woke up.) It looks *really* cool. I can't wait to watch something that takes full advantage of the 5.1 format. But back to work. Lacey just quit - she walked out Friday night about 10:30; Dave's *real* pissed - he said he doesn't want her on the lot at all, not even as a customer. Which I have no problem with, I never liked Lacey. Emily's quitting too - she put in her two weeks, but Dave's just taking her off the schedule now, as people who do that tend to not show up and he'd rather just cover his ass. I hear Allison is about to leave as well. I'm glad Emily and Lacey are leaving, though Allison leaving makes me sad. A little. She's changed a lot lately. Kristen commeted on it as well when she came over to check the place out. Krystle got her job back and is going to stay, which is good. Flaky idiot though she may be, I prefer having her on the shift.
Time for a crew rundown. Sort of. Jennifer C is really cool - she came over and hung out with David and I the other day. We watched Euro Trip, then ran errands. That was fun. Got to know her a lot better. She's a lot weirder than she lets on. WHich is cool. Lala *did* call me on Wednesday to go floating, but didn't leave a message, and her phone was turned to private, so I couldn't call back. IT was annoying ot miss out on, but I'll live. Most of the other carhops don't like Stacy 'cause they think she's a bitch. I don't disagree, but I don't have the same reaction. I think she's really cool, bitch and all. The other night, she came up to me and asked me if I could teach her how to skate. We spent about half an hour after close on the lot, trying to teach her. Didn't go very well. I think she's going to try to get some blades, or talk to Dave about just fountaining. Either of those would be cool; I don't want her to leave. Jill and Krystie have finally settled into things; nothing either way on them. Josh N is out, finally. I hated that guy. THe other Josh is still here; I don't think he'll be leaving any time soon. I can work with him without problem, I just don't ilke him. Dave can kiss my ass, but I refuse to be forced to like my coworkers. Being able to work with them is enough.
Lilie hasn't been playing WoW much lately, though she did finally get Suchevane to 60. Jarrod and I are going to jump on the next PVP server and have Horde characters; David's going to join us, probably one of his friends as well. We might also have Alliance characters on David's server. Possibly; that'd be cool too. I've been having a lot of fun as Schlemilly, my gnomish mage. Pretty much have her spec down, which is a first.
Finally got Carrie's letter mailed, which should surprise her when she gets it. Her birthday is coming up soon, and I'm going to send her some flowers. That should surprise the crap out of her, which will be cool. I don't know if she still plans on coming down at some point, but I hope so. I haven't seen her in over two years. Imagine - someone to actually play DDR with. What a concept. Speaking of which, Rose is really enjoying living in FLorida. Her roommates are wither 'princesses' or 'villians', neatly segmented based on the characters they tend to like in Disney movies (She's a villian). She really wants me to come visit, but I don't know if Chelsea is up for another cross-counry trip. I'm thinking about it, though. I could visit Terri and Carrie as well while I'm over there; maybe even Aunt Janet and Uncle Barney as well. Hell, I"m sure I can find a decent number of reasons to go, as if the ones I have aren't enough already.
So... we finally finished season 1 of B5. We're 1/5th of the way done. Wow. Of course, given recent events, this one might be delayed, or dragged out further, or something. I don't know. We have a few other marathons we're also going to do.
THis has been a fairly thourough post, so I think I'm going to end it here. Though it is fairly comfortable typing in the living room recliner.
JD came over last night and we watched some MST3K, and I'm *still* copying over his collection. He has all of them. All 199. I've got the majority copied over, but the lest set is a huge pain in the ass, because neither David's nor my computer's DVD drives will read about 10 of the DVDs he has, but the media center will, so I have to do it all from across the room. Meh, could be worse. A lot worse. Went over for breakfast tacos at Mom's house earlier, that was cool. She keeps sending stuff my way, as she's adjusting cooking for two instead of three or four. Saw Lilie in her new car (the Shiny; he doesn't have a name yet) delivering pizza. Things are going very well with her right now, I'm really happy with where we are. Where we are now, which is different from where we were the last time we saw each other (it makes sense, trust me).
Work's been hell lately. Had two 50+ weeks in a row. This week, at least I have Sunday off, though I did have to work 6 am to 4 pm yesterday to get it. I originally asked for last night and today off because I thought Terri was going to be in town; it's probably just as well that she's not. Long story. But I'm enjoying the heck out of my day off. Going to dinner later with the family 'cause Janelle's leaving on Tuesday for a month and a day. David mounted the speakers yesterday (we were going to do it together, but I fell asleep and I guess he didn't feel like waiting until I woke up.) It looks *really* cool. I can't wait to watch something that takes full advantage of the 5.1 format. But back to work. Lacey just quit - she walked out Friday night about 10:30; Dave's *real* pissed - he said he doesn't want her on the lot at all, not even as a customer. Which I have no problem with, I never liked Lacey. Emily's quitting too - she put in her two weeks, but Dave's just taking her off the schedule now, as people who do that tend to not show up and he'd rather just cover his ass. I hear Allison is about to leave as well. I'm glad Emily and Lacey are leaving, though Allison leaving makes me sad. A little. She's changed a lot lately. Kristen commeted on it as well when she came over to check the place out. Krystle got her job back and is going to stay, which is good. Flaky idiot though she may be, I prefer having her on the shift.
Time for a crew rundown. Sort of. Jennifer C is really cool - she came over and hung out with David and I the other day. We watched Euro Trip, then ran errands. That was fun. Got to know her a lot better. She's a lot weirder than she lets on. WHich is cool. Lala *did* call me on Wednesday to go floating, but didn't leave a message, and her phone was turned to private, so I couldn't call back. IT was annoying ot miss out on, but I'll live. Most of the other carhops don't like Stacy 'cause they think she's a bitch. I don't disagree, but I don't have the same reaction. I think she's really cool, bitch and all. The other night, she came up to me and asked me if I could teach her how to skate. We spent about half an hour after close on the lot, trying to teach her. Didn't go very well. I think she's going to try to get some blades, or talk to Dave about just fountaining. Either of those would be cool; I don't want her to leave. Jill and Krystie have finally settled into things; nothing either way on them. Josh N is out, finally. I hated that guy. THe other Josh is still here; I don't think he'll be leaving any time soon. I can work with him without problem, I just don't ilke him. Dave can kiss my ass, but I refuse to be forced to like my coworkers. Being able to work with them is enough.
Lilie hasn't been playing WoW much lately, though she did finally get Suchevane to 60. Jarrod and I are going to jump on the next PVP server and have Horde characters; David's going to join us, probably one of his friends as well. We might also have Alliance characters on David's server. Possibly; that'd be cool too. I've been having a lot of fun as Schlemilly, my gnomish mage. Pretty much have her spec down, which is a first.
Finally got Carrie's letter mailed, which should surprise her when she gets it. Her birthday is coming up soon, and I'm going to send her some flowers. That should surprise the crap out of her, which will be cool. I don't know if she still plans on coming down at some point, but I hope so. I haven't seen her in over two years. Imagine - someone to actually play DDR with. What a concept. Speaking of which, Rose is really enjoying living in FLorida. Her roommates are wither 'princesses' or 'villians', neatly segmented based on the characters they tend to like in Disney movies (She's a villian). She really wants me to come visit, but I don't know if Chelsea is up for another cross-counry trip. I'm thinking about it, though. I could visit Terri and Carrie as well while I'm over there; maybe even Aunt Janet and Uncle Barney as well. Hell, I"m sure I can find a decent number of reasons to go, as if the ones I have aren't enough already.
So... we finally finished season 1 of B5. We're 1/5th of the way done. Wow. Of course, given recent events, this one might be delayed, or dragged out further, or something. I don't know. We have a few other marathons we're also going to do.
- Red vs. Blue
- Star Wars IV - VI
- MST3k
We could probably do this one in one night, definitely in two. We've both seen all of it extensively, though. Having Lilie over so she could finally watch it (though she doesn't seem to be able to go more than three episodes without falling asleep) is the main reason for this one.
To remind ourselves what Episode III was supposed to be transiitiong *to*, and to remember how fucking AWESOME they were. And are.
Don't konw about this one. It'd be ever longer than the B5 one... almost twice as many episodes, and each episode is roughly 2x as long. We're talking 20,000 minutes of viewing. Damn. Well over 300 hours, or ~ 2 1/2 days *straight*. Well, more than that - I did a ton of rounding. I'm tired, leave me alone. Given recent events, though, this one, at least in parts, is more likely, though. And I don't mean JD letting me borrow his entire collection, though that does help.
THis has been a fairly thourough post, so I think I'm going to end it here. Though it is fairly comfortable typing in the living room recliner.
2005-06-04
The club will be shaking, there we'll be waiting, 'cause I don't play nice
So I've adjusted to life in the new place fairly well. Haven't really gotten homesick or anything yet, but to be fair, home is still less than ten minutes away. David and I seem to be doing fine as roommates thus far. No issues so far. In fact, I just asked him if we had had any yet. Got it basically set up like we want. I still have some work to do on my room and bathroom, but the living room and command center are all set up - David just finished mounting the speakers for the Dolby Surround Sound 5.1 setup he has. I was supposed to help, but I was quite asleep from a 10 hour shift that started at six this morning. Got a good three hour nap.
Janelle graduated from High School. The ceremony was very nice. Britney Posey was Valedictorian; Janelle, Saludatorian.
JD and Janelle are here, so we're doing MST3K. More later.
Janelle graduated from High School. The ceremony was very nice. Britney Posey was Valedictorian; Janelle, Saludatorian.
JD and Janelle are here, so we're doing MST3K. More later.
2005-06-03
My oh my, do you want to say goodbye?
I'll probably use that lyric again on my next post, since this one isn't going to be very long. Just checking in. Last night/today was a ton of fun, for various reasons. More on that later. Apartment's working out rather well, more on that later (picture tour). Finally got Carrie's letter out; need to remember to send her some flowers for her birthday. Work's... work, I s'pose. Few updates there, though I have met some cool people there. Actually hung out with one. Getting a ton of hours right now. Up to 'Babylon Squared' on our B5 marathon; we're really ripping this up.
But it's time for work, so more later.
But it's time for work, so more later.
2005-05-24
You move around like you're unbreakable, and time after time you prove that you're unshakable
This is going to be a very quick, short post. I have to leave for work very soon. After the first weekend at the new pad... things are going pretty good. Got the living room basically set up - still need to do little things, like mount the huge dry erase board, and set up the secondary gaming station. Both of our pcs are up, running, and talking to each other; we (David) set up the media server last night and watched "Josie and the Pussycats", as well as bits of "Hero", an episode of MST3K, and some Red vs Blue. So it looks like that whole thing is definitely set up and ready to go.
I've got my room... somewhat set up. Got my bed set up and made, and it's pretty comfortable. Lilie says it's not as comfortable as my bed back home, but there weren't any sheets or pillows or anything when she said that. The next time she comes over, and it has its full compliment of stuff, we'll see what she says. Of course, she's leaving for New York on Friday. I still have to make a post about her. Or five. Something along those lines.
My characters on WoW have been getting some nice equipment upgrades; Kat's 24 now.
Work sucks. Tracy and I almost went at it last night right before she left. I can't stand either Josh, though one may be out of there before too long, since he keeps trying to call in and doesn't want to be there. The other one, though, is about to start running shifts. That's going to be fun. I'm just glad I won't have to deal with him then. I've got like 51 hours this week - working every day - and I might stretch that out to 60, especially this weekend. I don't know how much I want to be lounging around the house, just chillin' this weekend. Yeah.
So living with David is interesting - need to make a post about that too.
But I have to leave for work, so this will all have to wait for later.
Oh, and Carrie might be coming down to visit as well. That would rock. Hardcore.
I've got my room... somewhat set up. Got my bed set up and made, and it's pretty comfortable. Lilie says it's not as comfortable as my bed back home, but there weren't any sheets or pillows or anything when she said that. The next time she comes over, and it has its full compliment of stuff, we'll see what she says. Of course, she's leaving for New York on Friday. I still have to make a post about her. Or five. Something along those lines.
My characters on WoW have been getting some nice equipment upgrades; Kat's 24 now.
Work sucks. Tracy and I almost went at it last night right before she left. I can't stand either Josh, though one may be out of there before too long, since he keeps trying to call in and doesn't want to be there. The other one, though, is about to start running shifts. That's going to be fun. I'm just glad I won't have to deal with him then. I've got like 51 hours this week - working every day - and I might stretch that out to 60, especially this weekend. I don't know how much I want to be lounging around the house, just chillin' this weekend. Yeah.
So living with David is interesting - need to make a post about that too.
But I have to leave for work, so this will all have to wait for later.
Oh, and Carrie might be coming down to visit as well. That would rock. Hardcore.
2005-05-21
First post
I'm actually writing this post from the new apartment, on my computer. It's all set up, except for the speakers. I forgot the power cord for them, so I'll have them in a little bit. David is, of course, busy showing off his computer and how superior it is to mine. I'll live.
2005-05-12
Rock, you rock!
Troy rocks.
Seriously.
I'm a sucker for huge, historical war-type epics. Huge ensemble casts, beautiful costumes, tremendous sets, battles... love 'em. I mean, not unconditionally - Alexander was atrocious, no redeeming factors. In terms of movies, it's down there with The Hulk. Troy, on the other hand, was fantastic. I don't have an opinion either way on Brad Pitt; I tend to evaluate him in each role he plays; but I've not seen many of his movies.
Oh, moving in on Monday. That's exciting. Been packing like crazy, got about four boxes of stuff ready to go. It's just so overwhelming. Started going through one of two massive boxes in the garage; one of them held a cache of pictures - a *massive* stack. Going through them was quite an adventure. Even found a few pictures of Mindy - thought I had gotten rid of them all.
Seriously.
I'm a sucker for huge, historical war-type epics. Huge ensemble casts, beautiful costumes, tremendous sets, battles... love 'em. I mean, not unconditionally - Alexander was atrocious, no redeeming factors. In terms of movies, it's down there with The Hulk. Troy, on the other hand, was fantastic. I don't have an opinion either way on Brad Pitt; I tend to evaluate him in each role he plays; but I've not seen many of his movies.
Oh, moving in on Monday. That's exciting. Been packing like crazy, got about four boxes of stuff ready to go. It's just so overwhelming. Started going through one of two massive boxes in the garage; one of them held a cache of pictures - a *massive* stack. Going through them was quite an adventure. Even found a few pictures of Mindy - thought I had gotten rid of them all.
2004-06-29
I did it... well, not really
So last night, I went to Jarrod's show with Michael and Myca. They did pretty good - everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. I played a little DDR beforehand - Can't Stop Falling in Love (Speed Mix), Kick the Can, Afronova Primeval, Drop Out, Abyss, and Rhythm & Police (KOG3 Mix). After the concert, I stopped by to say 'hey' to Katie. She seemed sincerely happy to see me - we talked in the kitchen while she cleaned a blender. Nothing substantial - she told me about the various issues they have with their place at the moment, what she'd been up to, that kind of thing. We went outside eventually, as I was leaving; she saw Myca getting out of my truck, and freaked out momentarily - "Billy, there's someone getting out of your truck!!" It was kinda funny. She also mentioned about how she wasn't sure it was me when I knocked, 'cause I was turned around, and she could barely see me out of the peephole. "I don't trust peepholes." I, however, thought she said "I don't trust people." It was kinda funny.
Apparently, though, (according to Matt and Michael) she now knows I like her - because I stopped by to see her with two other people in the truck, and didn't have them with me. Or something like that. I don't know...
Apparently, though, (according to Matt and Michael) she now knows I like her - because I stopped by to see her with two other people in the truck, and didn't have them with me. Or something like that. I don't know...
