Butternut appeared to want to go outside, so I placed him on the snow but he didn’t like it…
November 29, 2007
November 26, 2007
Gusteau
"If you're focused on what you've left behind, you will not be able to see what lies ahead."
~from Ratatouille
~from Ratatouille
Cyber Monday
After a weekend full of rest I was tricked by my body into thinking I was on the mend, but at precisely 1:00 today I was brutally reminded that I am, in fact, still sick.
My head is suddenly heavy, my back - sore. My mind is groggy. And I want to run out the door. (See what I just did there?)
Anyway, this illness has reduced my humor to predictable poetry. And I just want to go home.
Damn you Cyber Monday!
My head is suddenly heavy, my back - sore. My mind is groggy. And I want to run out the door. (See what I just did there?)
Anyway, this illness has reduced my humor to predictable poetry. And I just want to go home.
Damn you Cyber Monday!
November 23, 2007
It's The Little Things
I read Lach's blog the other day and really enjoyed her post about the little joys - those wonderful memories that came from an ordinary day. It got me thinking about mine.
Montana was really hard for me. I felt isolated, in more than one sense, and I was fighting with my mom all the time (I hear 16 year-olds do that). One day my dad suggested he and I go for a jog. We bundled up and shuffled across snow and ice, and had a really great time doing it. So we made it a ritual. He would come home from work and we'd change into our sweats and mittens. Sometimes we would talk and sometimes we would enjoy the crunching of the snow below our feet, our crisp breathing, and the occasional deer scampering across the road. That kind of silence can only be found during a Montana winter.
The morning after Logic proposed to me, I woke up with butterflies in my stomach. I stared at the ring for a long time, feeling excited and scared all at once. (Marriage is a huge commitment, after all.) I so badly wanted to go across the hall and tell my friend, Lilikoi, but she wasn't awake yet. So I tried to occupy my time. I showered, lotioned up with Cotton Blossom (that smell will forever remind me of that day) and listened to some Shania Twain. Then I heard her use the sink. I bolted to my feet and barged into her room. With my arm behind my back, I tried to act casual but ended up belting out that Logic proposed. As I whipped my arm around, she had to stabilize it because I was shaking. And the rest is a blur.
I was staying with Laurie for the summer and had just returned from a day of work at the mall. I walked through the front door and heard the jingling of a collar. The next thing I knew my parent's dog, Maggie, came running down the hallway to greet me. Instinctively I knelt down to pet her and when I stood back up, I saw my parents standing in the bedroom. They'd driven 7 hours to surprise us with an extended weekend trip. It was a wonderful surprise.
Paige and I shared a room in Kennewick, much to her dismay. I was 10, she was 15. She set up a barrier to try and maintain some privacy and sense of personal space. If memory serves, it was a string that she strategically wrapped around all the important things in our room. (My side of the room had my bed and a path to the door.) So on the days when Paige wasn't mad at me, I got to "share" the room with her. We would do chores together and even help each other make our beds. She would get on one side and I'd be on the other, and then we'd race to see who could finish their side first. One particularly fun day, I remember racing Paige as the song Kokomo by the Beach Boys came on the radio. That song still brings a smile to my face.
Montana was really hard for me. I felt isolated, in more than one sense, and I was fighting with my mom all the time (I hear 16 year-olds do that). One day my dad suggested he and I go for a jog. We bundled up and shuffled across snow and ice, and had a really great time doing it. So we made it a ritual. He would come home from work and we'd change into our sweats and mittens. Sometimes we would talk and sometimes we would enjoy the crunching of the snow below our feet, our crisp breathing, and the occasional deer scampering across the road. That kind of silence can only be found during a Montana winter.
The morning after Logic proposed to me, I woke up with butterflies in my stomach. I stared at the ring for a long time, feeling excited and scared all at once. (Marriage is a huge commitment, after all.) I so badly wanted to go across the hall and tell my friend, Lilikoi, but she wasn't awake yet. So I tried to occupy my time. I showered, lotioned up with Cotton Blossom (that smell will forever remind me of that day) and listened to some Shania Twain. Then I heard her use the sink. I bolted to my feet and barged into her room. With my arm behind my back, I tried to act casual but ended up belting out that Logic proposed. As I whipped my arm around, she had to stabilize it because I was shaking. And the rest is a blur.
I was staying with Laurie for the summer and had just returned from a day of work at the mall. I walked through the front door and heard the jingling of a collar. The next thing I knew my parent's dog, Maggie, came running down the hallway to greet me. Instinctively I knelt down to pet her and when I stood back up, I saw my parents standing in the bedroom. They'd driven 7 hours to surprise us with an extended weekend trip. It was a wonderful surprise.
Paige and I shared a room in Kennewick, much to her dismay. I was 10, she was 15. She set up a barrier to try and maintain some privacy and sense of personal space. If memory serves, it was a string that she strategically wrapped around all the important things in our room. (My side of the room had my bed and a path to the door.) So on the days when Paige wasn't mad at me, I got to "share" the room with her. We would do chores together and even help each other make our beds. She would get on one side and I'd be on the other, and then we'd race to see who could finish their side first. One particularly fun day, I remember racing Paige as the song Kokomo by the Beach Boys came on the radio. That song still brings a smile to my face.
Happy Leftover Day!
1 six pound turkey
2 pounds of green beans
12 large potatoes
1 head of romaine
2 pounds of seabass
8 servings of stuffing
1 pumpkin pie
and 4 people.
Ah, the day of gluttony.
November 22, 2007
November 15, 2007
Agatha Christie
"I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing."
~I saw this quote today on mrrr_55's photos on flickr. He usually has a quote for every photo. Today's stood out for some reason.
~I saw this quote today on mrrr_55's photos on flickr. He usually has a quote for every photo. Today's stood out for some reason.
November 14, 2007
Photosynthesis
Today's 4:30 feels like July's 10:00. Granted, the sun never really surfaced today but it sure is dark outside. For the first time since early Spring, I had to pull out my Go-Lite for some good juju. This little $150 contraption is a necessity in Seattle. Or a tanning bed, but I hear those are more expensive and slightly more harmful for your skin.
Last night Logic and I watched part of the Discovery Channel's mini-series Planet Earth . The segment called Pole to Pole talked about Antarctica to the North Pole and everything in between. Some of it was breath-taking, some depressing and some made me giggle (like watching baby polar bears walk for the first time). But one thing I found to be really interesting was that trees don't grow above a certain latitude because the sun's rays never make it all the way to the Earth. Sure, the sun is shining in the sky, but it's not close enough to provide energy for photosynthesis.
Which leads me to the mantra getting me through today - Hey! Seattle might be gray but at least we get photosynthesis.
Last night Logic and I watched part of the Discovery Channel's mini-series Planet Earth . The segment called Pole to Pole talked about Antarctica to the North Pole and everything in between. Some of it was breath-taking, some depressing and some made me giggle (like watching baby polar bears walk for the first time). But one thing I found to be really interesting was that trees don't grow above a certain latitude because the sun's rays never make it all the way to the Earth. Sure, the sun is shining in the sky, but it's not close enough to provide energy for photosynthesis.
Which leads me to the mantra getting me through today - Hey! Seattle might be gray but at least we get photosynthesis.
November 13, 2007
Inappropriate Yoga Guy
Logic is out of town, which means I am not carpooling into work. I love this for several reasons (sorry Ozone):
-I can sleep in (my schedule is more flexible than his so as long as I get in my forty hours, I can pretty much come and go as I please)
-read above
-I can tailor my day around gym classes
So yesterday I woke up late and got into work with just enough time to work eight hours and get to the gym in time for yoga. But after rushing across town, changing clothes and unfolding my mat in a classroom with 27 other people (I counted), the instructor never showed. Two people went to the front desk to see what was going on and left without much information. There wasn't even so much as an apology, but that's another story. So as people began to file out of the room, one girl asked if anyone had any experience because she was really looking forward to this class.
Knowing full well what was about to happen, I decided to stick around for the entertainment value.
You see, there were these two guys that I'd noticed when we were waiting for the room to be available. They were your typical Inappropriate Yoga Guys.And it was obvious that they would be vying for the opportunity to show off in front of a group of girls.
I was right. One of them got up and starting explaining how uncomfortable he was with being in front of everyone (gag) and then proceeded to thrust his body from one awkward pose to another. After watching a few attempts at what he called yoga, I rolled up my mat and left.
-I can sleep in (my schedule is more flexible than his so as long as I get in my forty hours, I can pretty much come and go as I please)
-read above
-I can tailor my day around gym classes
So yesterday I woke up late and got into work with just enough time to work eight hours and get to the gym in time for yoga. But after rushing across town, changing clothes and unfolding my mat in a classroom with 27 other people (I counted), the instructor never showed. Two people went to the front desk to see what was going on and left without much information. There wasn't even so much as an apology, but that's another story. So as people began to file out of the room, one girl asked if anyone had any experience because she was really looking forward to this class.
Knowing full well what was about to happen, I decided to stick around for the entertainment value.
You see, there were these two guys that I'd noticed when we were waiting for the room to be available. They were your typical Inappropriate Yoga Guys.And it was obvious that they would be vying for the opportunity to show off in front of a group of girls.
I was right. One of them got up and starting explaining how uncomfortable he was with being in front of everyone (gag) and then proceeded to thrust his body from one awkward pose to another. After watching a few attempts at what he called yoga, I rolled up my mat and left.
November 12, 2007
November 10, 2007
The Struggle
I woke up to a loud crash. Assuming George tried to eat the bamboo and in turn, tipped over the vase, I sat for a second. Nothing. No scampering of tiny feet , no rocks hitting the floor. Choosing to err on the side of caution, I pulled myself out of bed only to discover no such thing. To confirm my findings, I put my glasses on and retraced my steps. Nothing had fallen. Nothing was out of place.
And as I looked up instinctually to realize it was most likely a mess my upstairs neighbor had made, I saw a perfect part in the sky. Half the sky was swirling with grey cumulus clouds and the other half was as clear as a summer's day. For the next twenty minutes I watched the struggle; cheering for the blue. But typical to the beginning of any good story, the grey overtook the crisp, clear sky and reminded me of my location.
And as I looked up instinctually to realize it was most likely a mess my upstairs neighbor had made, I saw a perfect part in the sky. Half the sky was swirling with grey cumulus clouds and the other half was as clear as a summer's day. For the next twenty minutes I watched the struggle; cheering for the blue. But typical to the beginning of any good story, the grey overtook the crisp, clear sky and reminded me of my location.
November 08, 2007
Need a Smile?
The only rule:
Think about them one at a time before going on to the next one.
1. Falling in love.
2. Laughing so hard your face hurts.
3. A hot shower.
4. No lines at the supermarket.
5. A special glance.
6. Getting mail.
7. Taking a drive on a pretty road.
8. Hearing your favorite song on the radio.
9. Lying in bed listening to the rain outside.
10. Hot towels fresh out of the dryer.
11. Chocolate milkshake (vanilla or strawberry).
12. A bubble bath.
13. Giggling.
14. Hearing a cat's purr.*
15. The beach.
16. Finding a 20 dollar bill in your coat from last winter.
17. Laughing at yourself.
18. Looking into their eyes and knowing they Love you
19. Midnight phone calls that last for hours.
20. Running through sprinklers.
21. Laughing for absolutely no reason at all.
22. Having someone tell you that you're beautiful.
23. Laughing at an inside joke with FRIENDS
24. Accidentally overhearing someone say something nice about you.
25.. Waking up and realizing you still have a few hours left to sleep.
26. Your first kiss (either the very first or with a new partner).
27. Making new friends or spending time with old ones.
28. Playing with a new puppy.
29. Having someone play with your hair.
30. Sweet dreams.
31. Hot chocolate.
32. Road trips with friends.
33. Swinging on swings.
34. Making eye contact with a cute stranger.
35. Making chocolate chip cookies.
36. Having your friends send you homemade cookies.
37. Holding hands with someone you care about.
38. Running into an old friend and realizing that some things (good or bad) never change..
39. Watching the expression on someone's face as they open a much desired present from you.
40. Watching the sunrise.
41. Getting out of bed every morning and being grateful for another beautiful day.
42. Knowing that somebody misses you.
43. Getting a hug from someone you care about deeply.
44. Knowing you've done the right thing, no matter what other people think.
~Thanks to Jade for sending this to me. I needed it today.
*changed slumber party for a cat's purr as I agree with Deb
Think about them one at a time before going on to the next one.
1. Falling in love.
2. Laughing so hard your face hurts.
3. A hot shower.
4. No lines at the supermarket.
5. A special glance.
6. Getting mail.
7. Taking a drive on a pretty road.
8. Hearing your favorite song on the radio.
9. Lying in bed listening to the rain outside.
10. Hot towels fresh out of the dryer.
11. Chocolate milkshake (vanilla or strawberry).
12. A bubble bath.
13. Giggling.
14. Hearing a cat's purr.*
15. The beach.
16. Finding a 20 dollar bill in your coat from last winter.
17. Laughing at yourself.
18. Looking into their eyes and knowing they Love you
19. Midnight phone calls that last for hours.
20. Running through sprinklers.
21. Laughing for absolutely no reason at all.
22. Having someone tell you that you're beautiful.
23. Laughing at an inside joke with FRIENDS
24. Accidentally overhearing someone say something nice about you.
25.. Waking up and realizing you still have a few hours left to sleep.
26. Your first kiss (either the very first or with a new partner).
27. Making new friends or spending time with old ones.
28. Playing with a new puppy.
29. Having someone play with your hair.
30. Sweet dreams.
31. Hot chocolate.
32. Road trips with friends.
33. Swinging on swings.
34. Making eye contact with a cute stranger.
35. Making chocolate chip cookies.
36. Having your friends send you homemade cookies.
37. Holding hands with someone you care about.
38. Running into an old friend and realizing that some things (good or bad) never change..
39. Watching the expression on someone's face as they open a much desired present from you.
40. Watching the sunrise.
41. Getting out of bed every morning and being grateful for another beautiful day.
42. Knowing that somebody misses you.
43. Getting a hug from someone you care about deeply.
44. Knowing you've done the right thing, no matter what other people think.
~Thanks to Jade for sending this to me. I needed it today.
*changed slumber party for a cat's purr as I agree with Deb
November 05, 2007
So I Don't Forget
Because if I don't write it down, I will.
All the jobs I've ever had:
Babysitting:
-4 kids under the age of 6 and I was 12. You do the math.
-Subbing for a family Paige used to sit for. I made chicken and rice casserole fordinner only to find out that the rice had moths in it.
-Staying with my eldest sister during the summers of 1992-1997 to help her with 2 daughters. At the end of the summer I went school shopping with the money.
Pizza Hut:
My first real job. Taxes taken. I got the job because my friends Brittney and Renee worked there. Three years spent waiting tables, bussing, hosting, doing dishes and occasionally cooking. It was your typical high school job. We took beer in soda cups, had parties in the back when the boss wasn't around and dated our co-workers. My boss, Omar, and I did not get along. (I'm not even sure what it was about him, but he really pushed my buttons. I was actually sent home a few times for arguing with him.) It was while I was working there that I got a phone call from Paige saying she was engaged. I also heard that my ex-boyfriend Aaron was killed in a car accident while working there.
A Day Care:
That lasted a week. I worked out of someone's home and it was she, I and about 12 kids. I'm pretty sure that's illegal, now that I think about it. Aren't there supposed to be 1 adult for 3 kids, or something like that? Anyway, that job made me never want to have kids. There were just too many of them to get things under control.
A Toy Store:
Supplemented income during a summer at Laurie's. She wasn't working much so there wasn't really a need for me to be there. But I think my parents were happy to get me out of the house for a few months. Since I was there, and didn't have much to do, I got a job at the mall working in a toy store. Almost as bad as the day care. And again, another reason in the "cons" field for having kids. Oooh, I remember this one toy. It was a train that made noises when it moved. I could go the rest of my life without hearing that damn train toy again. But the worst part of that job was having to count the till at the end of the night. Math is not my forte, to say the least. As the clock ticked down to the end of my shift, my hands would begin to sweat and I would begin to tremble. It was me versus the machine and I always lost. In the 3 months that I worked there, I don't think there was a single time that I balanced that son of a bitch.
Techtronics:
After graduating high school and moving in with Paige in Portland I tried to get a job as a nanny. Ironic since I'd twice convinced myself that I never wanted kids. But it seemed like the thing to do if I wanted to go to college. Take care of kids during the day, and go to school at night. But after 2 months of mooching off Paige and having nothing to do but TaeBo all day, I went to a temp agency. I had to take tests. Lots of tests. But the most surprising was when they ushered me into a room with motherboards and printers and had me follow instructions. I really should have tried harder to get it wrong, but damnit I passed those tests and was assigned a job at Techtronics.
I worked in a warehouse in 4 ten hour shifts. Training lasted a week and then our class was split up to do various assignments. I was the youngest one there. There were a lot of immigrants and social skills seemed to be lost in translation. There was one Russian man in particular that didn't understand it was unacceptable to follow an 18 year old girl around all day. The situation was brought to management's attention but it was taken lightly. Until one day, he cornered me in the breakroom and as soon as I got away from him, I ran to my boss and demanded something be done. The Russian was transferred to the night shift, but that only made doing my job easier. He would be finishing his shift when I arrived and coming in as I was leaving, so I still saw him regularly and he still overstepped the lines by waiting by my car and following me to the bathroom. I quit three months into it.
After Techtronics I decided I needed a more teenage-appropriate job. So I worked at Abercrombie and Fitch. The thing about going from a warehouse with hard working immigrants to a frat house (aka A&F) was that I had no patience for the people who preferred to socialize over help customers. And I took a big pay cut. So two months into working there, I picked up a day job at
Cucina! Cucina! Italian Grill as the lead host. The restaurant was in the parking lot of the mall I worked at so I would often open the restaurant and work the lunch shift and then change clothes and work at A&F until midnight. This put a damper on my intentions of going to school. I quickly learned that being a grown-up was expensive. It was during those first few months at A&F that Logic was diagnosed with Hodgkins so it wasn't long before he moved back to Roseburg and our relationship turned long-distance. Six months of that was tough, especially since I wanted to be there for him. So in November of '99 I packed up my .. hmm. Well, I didn't really have much. I guess I just packed my suitcase and moved to Roseburg.
I'd been offered a job at Enterprise Rent-A-Car before the move, so after unloading my clothes at my new apartment, I reported for my first day as a Car Prep (ie: bitch). It was exciting to tell people I worked at Enterprise because it sounded very responsible, but in all actuality, I was treated worse there than even at Pizza Hut. I cleaned cars, I picked up customers, I cleaned toilets, I did lunch runs. And I put up with that for a year.
Again, to make more money, I decided to get a second job. This time it was at a place called Ridgeway Market. A little mom and pop convenience store that also had a coffee drive-thru. That job would have been okay had the owners not been maniacal, sadistic tightwads. There were post it signs everywhere. "Don't do this" and "vacuum here" to the point where I didn't want to do my work just to spite them. And the security cameras weren't set up to protect us from robberies. No, they were there so the owners could monitor our ice cream consumption! I can't remember how long I worked there, but I think it was around six months. And then one day a woman came into the store to get a coffee and mentioned that she was doing interviews for servers at the new Applebee's that was going up by the freeway. I applied, along with another girl at the Market and we both got the job.
I started at Applebee's in June of 2000 and went through a month of training before the restaurant even opened. Since Roseburg isn't exactly a metropolis, Applebee's was the talk of the town. We were finally getting a chain restaurant! The day that we opened was complete mayhem, but in a good way. Everyone wanted to come see what Applebee's was about. And everyone wanted to work there. Having gone through extensive training together, our team had a strong bond. We all went to the same college and hung out before work. And then Logic asked me to marry him and move to Florida. So we traveled cross-country in our U-Haul without a place to stay or a source of income.
Within a week, however, we had an apartment and I was a server at Hop's Microbrewery. I waited tables there for nine months while I went to school and then found out none of my previous credits transferred. So I dropped out of school, resigning myself to go when we moved back to the West Coast (where my credits were still good) and graduated to bartender. But shortly after becoming a bartender I realized that I wasn't cut out for it. Sure, I liked making all the drinks and socializing with people but I hadn't anticipated having to fend off every drunk that thought I was cute. Typically, the guys were random and moved on to the next girl after they were rejected by me. But one guy in particular wouldn't leave me alone. His tips were always amazing and at first the girls all vied for his tab. But then he started requesting me and started making inappropriate comments whenever I'd take him a beer. Having dealt with this before, I used my strongest voice and informed him I was married. But the cat-calls continued. And then one night he took it too far. And my management didn't do anything about it. I no longer felt safe and had no other option but to quit.
After that, I decided I didn't want to bartend anymore so I took a job waiting tables at Carrabba's. The owner was really intense and didn't take kindly to excuses. I liked that about him. Especially since restaurant work was leaving me jaded. I was tired of picking up other people's slack and having to compensate for their lack of cleanliness, etc. Carrabba's was fun, and I made some good friends there. But after a year of making $2.13 an hour plus tips and not having health insurance, Logic and I decided it was time for me to get a 'real job' until he could graduate and we could move.
Citibank Fraud Department turned out to be that 'real job' for me. I went through six weeks of training before moving down to a large room with 60 other people answering fraud related questions for customers over the phone. It was really exciting. At first. And then the monotony kicked in. "Hello, this is _______, how may I help you? Oh, your credit card was stolen. Please hold while I access your account." (insert voice similar to "Bueller? Bueller?) I was promoted to specialty unit that investigated mail fraud but luckily the time had come for Logic to graduate and we picked the spot farthest from Florida on the map and got the hell out of there.
-Another move across country, another U-Haul, and again - no shelter, no job. Luckily, we'd saved up this time, which would turn out to be detrimental. I tried to off-shoot a company my sister started that was somewhat similar to catering while Logic looked for post-collegiate work. Three months later, he finally accepted a job at Lowe's and I was working with about 3 restaurants. Money was tight. So again, I took a second job. During the day I would run around like crazy, trying to start up my business and at 2:00 I would show up at Buca di Beppo's to coordinate their holiday functions for the next five hours.
Nine months after starting up my own company, I laid it to rest. The Seattle market was extremely fickle and my heart was no longer in it. I also couldn't see myself coordinating functions for Buca di Beppo for much longer so I did what I'd been dreading. I put my application out on the web in search of another fraud related job.
A week after signing up with Monster.com, I received a phone call from a temp agency wanting to place me with a contracting position at Amazon.com. Having felt defeated in all other realms of work, I accepted. Nine months of contract work turned into a permanent position on their fraud team. That was three years ago.
(to be continued...)
All the jobs I've ever had:
Babysitting:
-4 kids under the age of 6 and I was 12. You do the math.
-Subbing for a family Paige used to sit for. I made chicken and rice casserole fordinner only to find out that the rice had moths in it.
-Staying with my eldest sister during the summers of 1992-1997 to help her with 2 daughters. At the end of the summer I went school shopping with the money.
Pizza Hut:
My first real job. Taxes taken. I got the job because my friends Brittney and Renee worked there. Three years spent waiting tables, bussing, hosting, doing dishes and occasionally cooking. It was your typical high school job. We took beer in soda cups, had parties in the back when the boss wasn't around and dated our co-workers. My boss, Omar, and I did not get along. (I'm not even sure what it was about him, but he really pushed my buttons. I was actually sent home a few times for arguing with him.) It was while I was working there that I got a phone call from Paige saying she was engaged. I also heard that my ex-boyfriend Aaron was killed in a car accident while working there.
A Day Care:
That lasted a week. I worked out of someone's home and it was she, I and about 12 kids. I'm pretty sure that's illegal, now that I think about it. Aren't there supposed to be 1 adult for 3 kids, or something like that? Anyway, that job made me never want to have kids. There were just too many of them to get things under control.
A Toy Store:
Supplemented income during a summer at Laurie's. She wasn't working much so there wasn't really a need for me to be there. But I think my parents were happy to get me out of the house for a few months. Since I was there, and didn't have much to do, I got a job at the mall working in a toy store. Almost as bad as the day care. And again, another reason in the "cons" field for having kids. Oooh, I remember this one toy. It was a train that made noises when it moved. I could go the rest of my life without hearing that damn train toy again. But the worst part of that job was having to count the till at the end of the night. Math is not my forte, to say the least. As the clock ticked down to the end of my shift, my hands would begin to sweat and I would begin to tremble. It was me versus the machine and I always lost. In the 3 months that I worked there, I don't think there was a single time that I balanced that son of a bitch.
Techtronics:
After graduating high school and moving in with Paige in Portland I tried to get a job as a nanny. Ironic since I'd twice convinced myself that I never wanted kids. But it seemed like the thing to do if I wanted to go to college. Take care of kids during the day, and go to school at night. But after 2 months of mooching off Paige and having nothing to do but TaeBo all day, I went to a temp agency. I had to take tests. Lots of tests. But the most surprising was when they ushered me into a room with motherboards and printers and had me follow instructions. I really should have tried harder to get it wrong, but damnit I passed those tests and was assigned a job at Techtronics.
I worked in a warehouse in 4 ten hour shifts. Training lasted a week and then our class was split up to do various assignments. I was the youngest one there. There were a lot of immigrants and social skills seemed to be lost in translation. There was one Russian man in particular that didn't understand it was unacceptable to follow an 18 year old girl around all day. The situation was brought to management's attention but it was taken lightly. Until one day, he cornered me in the breakroom and as soon as I got away from him, I ran to my boss and demanded something be done. The Russian was transferred to the night shift, but that only made doing my job easier. He would be finishing his shift when I arrived and coming in as I was leaving, so I still saw him regularly and he still overstepped the lines by waiting by my car and following me to the bathroom. I quit three months into it.
After Techtronics I decided I needed a more teenage-appropriate job. So I worked at Abercrombie and Fitch. The thing about going from a warehouse with hard working immigrants to a frat house (aka A&F) was that I had no patience for the people who preferred to socialize over help customers. And I took a big pay cut. So two months into working there, I picked up a day job at
Cucina! Cucina! Italian Grill as the lead host. The restaurant was in the parking lot of the mall I worked at so I would often open the restaurant and work the lunch shift and then change clothes and work at A&F until midnight. This put a damper on my intentions of going to school. I quickly learned that being a grown-up was expensive. It was during those first few months at A&F that Logic was diagnosed with Hodgkins so it wasn't long before he moved back to Roseburg and our relationship turned long-distance. Six months of that was tough, especially since I wanted to be there for him. So in November of '99 I packed up my .. hmm. Well, I didn't really have much. I guess I just packed my suitcase and moved to Roseburg.
I'd been offered a job at Enterprise Rent-A-Car before the move, so after unloading my clothes at my new apartment, I reported for my first day as a Car Prep (ie: bitch). It was exciting to tell people I worked at Enterprise because it sounded very responsible, but in all actuality, I was treated worse there than even at Pizza Hut. I cleaned cars, I picked up customers, I cleaned toilets, I did lunch runs. And I put up with that for a year.
Again, to make more money, I decided to get a second job. This time it was at a place called Ridgeway Market. A little mom and pop convenience store that also had a coffee drive-thru. That job would have been okay had the owners not been maniacal, sadistic tightwads. There were post it signs everywhere. "Don't do this" and "vacuum here" to the point where I didn't want to do my work just to spite them. And the security cameras weren't set up to protect us from robberies. No, they were there so the owners could monitor our ice cream consumption! I can't remember how long I worked there, but I think it was around six months. And then one day a woman came into the store to get a coffee and mentioned that she was doing interviews for servers at the new Applebee's that was going up by the freeway. I applied, along with another girl at the Market and we both got the job.
I started at Applebee's in June of 2000 and went through a month of training before the restaurant even opened. Since Roseburg isn't exactly a metropolis, Applebee's was the talk of the town. We were finally getting a chain restaurant! The day that we opened was complete mayhem, but in a good way. Everyone wanted to come see what Applebee's was about. And everyone wanted to work there. Having gone through extensive training together, our team had a strong bond. We all went to the same college and hung out before work. And then Logic asked me to marry him and move to Florida. So we traveled cross-country in our U-Haul without a place to stay or a source of income.
Within a week, however, we had an apartment and I was a server at Hop's Microbrewery. I waited tables there for nine months while I went to school and then found out none of my previous credits transferred. So I dropped out of school, resigning myself to go when we moved back to the West Coast (where my credits were still good) and graduated to bartender. But shortly after becoming a bartender I realized that I wasn't cut out for it. Sure, I liked making all the drinks and socializing with people but I hadn't anticipated having to fend off every drunk that thought I was cute. Typically, the guys were random and moved on to the next girl after they were rejected by me. But one guy in particular wouldn't leave me alone. His tips were always amazing and at first the girls all vied for his tab. But then he started requesting me and started making inappropriate comments whenever I'd take him a beer. Having dealt with this before, I used my strongest voice and informed him I was married. But the cat-calls continued. And then one night he took it too far. And my management didn't do anything about it. I no longer felt safe and had no other option but to quit.
After that, I decided I didn't want to bartend anymore so I took a job waiting tables at Carrabba's. The owner was really intense and didn't take kindly to excuses. I liked that about him. Especially since restaurant work was leaving me jaded. I was tired of picking up other people's slack and having to compensate for their lack of cleanliness, etc. Carrabba's was fun, and I made some good friends there. But after a year of making $2.13 an hour plus tips and not having health insurance, Logic and I decided it was time for me to get a 'real job' until he could graduate and we could move.
Citibank Fraud Department turned out to be that 'real job' for me. I went through six weeks of training before moving down to a large room with 60 other people answering fraud related questions for customers over the phone. It was really exciting. At first. And then the monotony kicked in. "Hello, this is _______, how may I help you? Oh, your credit card was stolen. Please hold while I access your account." (insert voice similar to "Bueller? Bueller?) I was promoted to specialty unit that investigated mail fraud but luckily the time had come for Logic to graduate and we picked the spot farthest from Florida on the map and got the hell out of there.
-Another move across country, another U-Haul, and again - no shelter, no job. Luckily, we'd saved up this time, which would turn out to be detrimental. I tried to off-shoot a company my sister started that was somewhat similar to catering while Logic looked for post-collegiate work. Three months later, he finally accepted a job at Lowe's and I was working with about 3 restaurants. Money was tight. So again, I took a second job. During the day I would run around like crazy, trying to start up my business and at 2:00 I would show up at Buca di Beppo's to coordinate their holiday functions for the next five hours.
Nine months after starting up my own company, I laid it to rest. The Seattle market was extremely fickle and my heart was no longer in it. I also couldn't see myself coordinating functions for Buca di Beppo for much longer so I did what I'd been dreading. I put my application out on the web in search of another fraud related job.
A week after signing up with Monster.com, I received a phone call from a temp agency wanting to place me with a contracting position at Amazon.com. Having felt defeated in all other realms of work, I accepted. Nine months of contract work turned into a permanent position on their fraud team. That was three years ago.
(to be continued...)
November 02, 2007
Good Karma
November 01, 2007
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Back To The Old Template
I fooled around. Had my fun. But ultimately, came back to my true love. We just work.
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