A Cartoonish Life

I'm not thrilled with the last raise I got at work. I've been looking through the employee handbook, and I haven't found anything in there about how exactly raises work, except that you get one every six months because we are with the union.

However, it's not necessarily the raise that I'm not happy with. It's the recent increases in minimum wage and how it hasn't been effecting my rate of pay. Frankly, I think if minimum wage is going to be increased, it should effect everyone's wages and not just those working at minimum wage. I'm scheduled for my next raise in June. Indiana's minimum wage goes up again in July to $7.25 an hour. (For those of you going "WTF?! $7.25 an hour?! Hell, where I live, it's at least $10 an hour!" keep in mind that I live in INDIANA.) Which means if the raises keep going the way they are and my paycheck won't be affected by the increase in minimum wage....I'll be back to earning a crappy paycheck. :(

Is this job really worth it if I've been working for nearly two years and earning close to minimum wage, despite these "raises"?


I need to find out when the next union meeting will be around here, or else I'll have to call my rep and ask him directly.


On a related note, they want to re-train me to work in the service center. Ugh. Not thrilled with that, either.

I WON! I WON! I won the food bank donation contest! :D :D

I got a $100 Visa gift card for winning. I don't know what I'm going to spend it on yet....I'll probably go clothes shopping with it or something.

In total, I collected $601. Whoever came in second place collected a little over $300. YEAH. I busted my butt this time, and I earned it!

As of yesterday, I'm neck-in-neck for first place with the MDA/Aisles of Smiles donations. While I was working self-check yesterday, Adam comes up and asks if I've sold at least two. Yesterday, I sold about eleven before I went to work at self-check. So I guess THAT means that put me over!

*SQUEEEEEEEEE!!*

HOWEVER.....and there is a "however".......they still have to tally up the earnings from yesterday. And today's the last day to collect donations.

I'm neck-in-neck with Shelly M. and Nancy S. They're both working today.



Oh, it's ON!! I lost first for the March of Dimes donations last time by SEVEN DOLLARS. I WANT TO WIN. I don't care about that $50 gift card to TGIFridays. I don't really want an in-store gift certificate for $20 or $25. I just want the glory of saying "I WON!!!! I worked hard, asked and annoyed a lot of people to donate, put forth an effort, and I WON!!!"

Because winning the Aisles of Smiles donation contest in our store means something to me. If I win this, that means I can do ANYTHING I WANT as long as I work hard and really put my mind to it.

I worked a 10 to 6 shift yesterday before I got to come home. One of the last customers I had was asking me how long the store was open and if I had to work until the store closed. I told him, "We close at 7, but I get off in about ten minutes." He had a twenty dollar bill coming back in his change, and he asked to get some fives back. I gave him back his change, and he gave me a five and said, "Merry Christmas."

I didn't even bag any groceries or anything for him, but it was a very nice gesture.

Anyway, we're getting a bit of an unexpected guest for Christmas. One of our family friends is going through a breakup from his ol' lady that he's been with for at least a decade (or it feels like they've been together that long). I have no idea if he's squatting here, or if Dad's just letting him stash his camper with all of his stuff in it in our driveway (which is what Dad made it sound like)...but yeah.

Anyway, to all who read this....Merry Christmas.

Not much to say about Grandma Cozie being up here for Thanksgiving, other than I wasn't around much. Before she came up here, Mom said, "Oh, she'll probably be at the mall every other day." HA. Good one, Mom. Because Aunt Ruth is gone, she doesn't have a shopping partner to go with her. So she stayed up here every day and laid around in her Aero Bed, complaining about how much pain she was in and how cold it was up here in Indiana. ( Read more... )

Last night when I got home from work, Grandma Cozie was talking with Dad while watching some Christmas movie. And she turns to me and says, "Holly, you need to think about getting married and having me some great-grandkids."( Read more... )

Anyhoo...today, I took Bo to the vet's office for another weigh-in and for his flea/tick and heartworm preventative medicine. He's 73 pounds so far. For a treat, we went and got sausage biscuit sandwiches at McDonald's (and free coffee, since it IS Monday after all, which I am sitting here enjoying as I type this). Today, I also start training for service desk duties at work. I'm not exactly thrilled about it, but we'll see how it goes. I may end up liking this better, and I may not. I don't mind being a regular cashier, but it doesn't pay much...and I don't expect I'll be getting a major pay raise to be working the service desk. (My mandatory pay raise comes around Christmas, as a matter of fact.) I also have a psych test to study for, and to get my mini-writing assignment folder completed for Composition class.

(I should also get on posting at Starbright Continued. I've put it off for a week, but I've had school and work getting in the way.)

Not a happy camper at all. Nope, not me, no siree.

Guess who's visiting for Thanksgiving? Grandma Cozie! *rolls eyes and grunts* Got the news sprung on me two days ago! She's here now! She brought up her new annoying little dog with her! The little dog and Bo don't get along very well! I'm glad I have to work on Thanksgiving because I don't want to be spending much time around her! At least this means I'll get paid time and a half!

Well, at least it's her making the trip up here and not Dad going down there, for once.

*tangent* I'm prepared for this psych test. I'm done and ready with my exploratory essay. I'm not prepared for my history test. I barely had any time to study for that class at all.

*tangent* Well....I had the job at Bath & Body Works. Problem was, my orientation was scheduled on a day I had to work at Strack's. (That's strike one.) I asked everyone who didn't have to work that day if they could possibly fill in for me. Everyone I asked said, "No." I then asked Milijana if there was anything she could do to help me out in finding someone to maybe split a shift with me. She looked at the schedule for all of five minutes. Then she came back to my register and said, "I'm afraid there's nothing I can do to help you. And keep in mind that they're going to have to schedule around us, because we came first." (That's strike two.)

And Milijana kinda pissed me off there. She's acting like this stupid, low-paying cashier job should be my number one priority. It's bad enough that I hardly get any free time outside of work and school because she likes to schedule me for all the days I'm not at school, but then she had to go and say that. So seriously, I've had it with that place. The sooner I can get a better paying job, the better, right? My only other option was to just call off on Sunday for my orientation, right?

According to Dad, "NO!" He said she was right, that I shouldn't just call off to "go piddle around at some job that's going to shitcan me after the holidays anyway." What the hell does DAD know? BBW was going to pay me better than Strack's. ( Read more... )

Seriously...I don't get them. I don't. And if Dad doesn't watch for the rest of the week, bringing his damn mother to invade the house, he's cruisin' for a bruisin' from me. Why the hell do I listen to either Mom or Dad? Why?

*tangent* But onto the big news....the news that has me so amped that I was squealing like a fangirl in my bedroom last night when it finally happened. (And that I've known was happening...just more of the thrill of finally seeing it on TV.)

The Second Coming. The reason that could get me watching WWE on a consistent basis again.





RAW IS JERICHO!!!!!!!!!!!!!



And thank God, he's going to give that assclown Randy Orton a run for his money.

Dear Holly,
Here is your AstroSlam
for Thursday, November 8:

Thoughts of a promising career dance through your head like sugar plum fairies, but just like sugar plum fairies, they are a fictional construct. Prepare for a lifetime of dead end job opportunities.

Great. Wonderful news for the rest of my day life.

I am frickin' tired. After I got home from work last night at 12:45 PM (yeah, I had to work another midnight shift during the school week), I stayed up for three hours working on my paper for my composition class. I got maybe two and a half hours sleep. Then I got back up to work on it a little more. Now here I am at school, scrambling to get it typed up because the computer was being stupid at home.

Plus, I'm starting to get sick. Everyone's starting to get sick. There have been lots of call-offs at work, and it's not fun. I keep getting called up to fill in for whoever has called off. Minutes before I left for campus this morning, Diane from work called me up to see if I could fill in for a call-off today. They KNOW I'm in classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I just...I don't know. This job isn't going to work out. I hope I can get a better paying job before Milijana decides to bump me up to working the customer service desk, because it's going to happen after Thanksgiving. And frankly, I just don't want that responsibility.

....My 27th birthday is in a month. Joy. Not really looking forward to it since my birthday always tends to fall around finals' time. Not like I'll be able to enjoy myself. I just hope that being 26 years old was nothing but a bad year for me and being a year older will usher in a new promising era.

It's going okay, for the most part. When we were counting down my drawer tonight, Leslie thought I was $7.35 short, but she made a mistake (not sure where...) when we recounted. Everything came out perfect (of course). So far, my managers love me; they like how I interact with the customers. I think a lot of me being so cheerful and accomodating to the customers is probably because A) I'm so new so I'm not allegedly jaded like some of the other cashiers might be, B0 this place sure beats the hell out of Blockbuster, and C) I'm trying my hardest not to screw up and to make a good impression. I haven't ran into a fellow employee that has given me any trouble yet (and it doesn't really look like I will), and maybe half of the customers I already know from Blockbuster and they know me and I get along with them anyway. I love those customers. They recognize me from over there, and they ask either "So are you working both here AND Blockbuster?" or "You finally left, didn't you?" with a smile on their face.

One of those customers came in today; her name's Beverly, she's one of the regular senior citizens that came in on Thursdays, knew to call ahead to see if what she wanted was in and I'd usually hold it to the side for her. I liked her. She came in to buy groceries today and was surprised to see me. She said something along the lines of, "So it looks like the turnover rate over there is pretty high, is it?" I told her we didn't really have such a high turnover rate until Scott got promoted. Then Kevin quit, Brooke quit, Jessica left for her second job, Hunter quit, Cory quit, all of the fill-in help Scott tried recruiting from his stupid Hammond store quit, and then I quit.

But like I said, I love those customers (so far). At the same time, it frustrates me that I know half of these people, like, "Ugh, will I EVER get out of small-town America in the middle of nowhere?!" But then again, St. John is a small town where everyone knows everybody, and it's rare that you encounter a place like that.

And the sad part is, I'm not even a resident of St. John!

I got offered a cashier's position at the Strack & Van Til's in St. John. It's a fifty-cent paycut from Blockbuster, but I'm guaranteed a raise every six months. Plus, it's union.

So, I'm kind of back where I started: a grocery store. I'm not bagging, but at least I have a job. And I will be honest...I earned good money at Wilco. So laugh if you must at my new place of employment. I don't care. It's a job. It pays money. And I have a monthly car payment to worry about.

I will say this, though. I threw out a LOT of job applications and resumés, so if/when something better comes along (like that secretarial position in downtown Lowell), I can't say I'll be fully committed to Strack's. I'll give Strack's a month to see if I'll stick with them.

I also got another call this morning before Mickie at Strack's called. Earlier last week, I answered an ad in the Times for a mock trial-thing. Kind of like a focus group. It pays $10 an hour. I had to fill out some paperwork to see if I'd get selected. Well, I've been selected, and this focus group/mock trial is Wednesday. It's being run by an actual law firm, and it sounds like it could be pretty exciting. I'll have to let them know at Strack's that I did commit to this like a couple of hours before they called, so my schedule doesn't conflict. It's at least $60 for the whole day; I'm not passing it up.

How about that? Two weeks of unemployment, and I got another job. Eat my shorts, Blockbuster. And right across the street, too.

You know how I've been complaining about how oh-so-broke I've been lately? Well, as soon as I gritted my teeth, made out my check to the state of Indiana to pay my state taxes and put it in the mailbox, I received my federal income tax refund check in the mail for $656. Not too shabby, really. (I deserve more, really.) My first impulse was to spend it on Jem dolls and Jem-related crap on eBay...but I'm holding off. I've got a car insurance payment coming up, plus license plates, plus emissions control testing all next month. Yippie-skippy. (*Note to self: speaking of Jem-related crap, I need to email Christy Marx about something.) I'm trying to be a little more conservative with my money. But that didn't stop me from slurging just a teeny bit on myself earlier today. I hit up the mall, debit card burning a hole in my purse. I ended up getting myself a new shirt and a new belly-button ring at Spencer's. (Jan, Erica and Doreen are still there. Yay!) I went to Ulta aaaaand....I'm going to be really brave, and since Hunter did it, I really want to do it, too....bought myself a blonde bleaching kit. I also ran into Christina at Starbucks, so she and I caught up a lit. (Yaaaay! Hadn't seen her since the last Rocky Horror showing!)

It's wonderful allergy season. I feel like absolute crap! *sticks out tounge*

But the big news.......

PUPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wish I knew how to upload the pics from my cellphone onto the Internet so I could post the cuteness of Bo, but I don't know how, so I'll have to wait for my disposable camera to get developed. I love him! He's my new best friend! He'll be nine weeks old on Friday, so he really IS still a puppy, but he's so damn cute. Words cannot describe how cute he is, really.