I'm not some dumb high school kid

Yesterday I found out just how desperate my Timmies is for employees.

I woke up Saturday morning feeling like complete shit, and since I now work in the food industry, I figured going to work while sick would be a bad idea. So I called in sick, which I hardly remember doing except for the fact that the supervisor was pissed off at me b/c I called 30 min prior to my shift start, as opposed to 2 hours prior. Right, because it would have been easier finding someone to replace me at 6am on a Saturday morning as opposed to 7:30.

On Sunday night, when I stop by the store to get my hours for the next week, I find out that b/c I called in sick, I lose all my shift premiums for 2 weeks. (Now, I 'm not sure if I explained this shift premium thing, but we get an extra $2-3/hr shift premium. This can be lost in a variety of ways, including being late, not finishing your assigned chores, and apparently calling in sick)

I call my boss on Moday and ask him about this, and yes, it is true.
(Upon hearing this from my boss)
Chris: And you understand that I was actually sick?
Him: Yes, but that is our policy. Didn't I tell you when I was hired how this worked? And the story of how I worked for for 19 years, and never took a single sick day?
C: Yes, you did. Well then I may as well just drop off my uniform tonight because I don't agree with that policy. It is unfair, and I'm not willing to sacrifice a substantial portion of my wage. In today's market I can walk down the street and be making just as much, and not have to put up with this. I enjoy working here, but not if I have to deal with stuff like this.
H: I know people get sick sometimes, and that you are working 2 jobs, and you had us cut back your shifts because it was too much for you to handle (i asked last week to work only 2 evenings, and a full day on saturday, instead of 3 evenings, plus all day saturday, which puts me at 20 hours a week. when i was hired i said 2-3 nights a week, weekends, about 20 hours a week)
H: (some bullshit about how these are the policies and are necessary) Well then since you are quitting without notice, all of your paid breaks and shift premiums will be removed and you won't be paid for them.
C: You aren't allowed to do that. I'll go to the labour board.
H: What is it that you don't agree with? This conversation leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. We even gave you a dollar an hour raise last week because we thought so highly about you. And now you are pulling this.
C: The policy is unfair. Your default attitude towards your employee's is one of blatant distrust.
H: I'll give you your premiums back, but this is your only chance. If this happens again, you lose them. We thought so highly of you. This conversation leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.
C: (thinking to my self... fine, I'll just quit at that point.) Alright, I'll see you at 4:30.

Their managerial style is indicative of the mainly teenage employees, which is fine, it works for them. But when you have ppl that come in to work that don't fit into that normal category of employees, you have to do something different, or risk loosing the more mature staff.

We'll see how this week goes. I'll crunch some numbers, go over my budget, and see what I come up with. Now that my bonuses are starting to take effect, I make a fairly decent wage. And with Mama Bean contributing to bring down our debt, it makes life a little easier.

6 weeks until moving day!

Escape

Tonight was the first time in my life I wanted to get drunk to escape. I'm not sure what has been going on lately, but I've been in a bit of a funk. Whether it is the working 6 days a week, split between 2 jobs, prepping my house to paint and sell, buying a new house and getting ready to move into it, planning and leading worship every week, planning a wedding that is fast approaching, a lack of exercise or a mix of everything, but I just feel burnt out. I don't think I know how to cope with stress properly. I'm not sleeping worth shit, and my body chemistry feels all out of whack. I used to just make stress go away by eliminating the contributing factor, or else not stressing about it until the last minute, and then it's over with. But this is spread out over months. Stress over long periods of times is dumb. I'm not liking this.

So we were hanging out at the bar with some friends tonight. I ordered a pint and by the time everyone else was less than a quarter done, I had ordered another. I then realized that I was the driver, and shouldn't be drinking. So I stopped, which is wise, as if I got pulled over for a dui, I'd be royally screwed since I have to drive in for work everyday.

The point being that I wanted to drink. I wanted to get shit-faced drunk, and just let everything go. Enjoy it.

I don't think this is healthy. I need to make some changes.

A little bit of insight

The gates of manhood are guarded by the demons of men's souls, and those demons differ for each man. That is the test of manhood; to find what those demons are, and then to slay them. That is the only way the gates can be made to open. My demon is that I am not sure if I am the man I want to be.

You cannot know who you are or what you are capable of until you face adversity. You cannot know the strength of the steel you hold until it strikes something solid. And you cannot know what kind of man you are until you look hardship and difficulty in the eye, face it, and rise to it's challenge. Without that test, you just don't know.

Wonderings

Do you ever sit and think about your past? About things your used to do? About things that were once really important in your life, but faded away? From grades 4 through 7 or 8, I was in drama, and I always got the lead role. I ended up dropping out of drama b/c I didn't get the lead in the last play I was in. Petty, I know. I was also on Student Council, I did public speaking, science fairs (even made it to the city ones a couple of times), Yearbook committee, and even editor one year. I planned school events, I was involved with committees both in school and in my classes. I was involved with lots of things, very much not an introvert. These things were all a vital part of my life, and they just kinda went away.

Once I hit high school, and all my friends were suddenly too cool for me, I became this bitter, hateful person. I became more and more of an introvert, whereas growing up I was completely the opposite. I had friends, I went out, I was involved in things. Suddenly I stopped all that. Partly b/c I didn't have the friend base anymore, but even the new friends I made, they were all shy introverted people themselves that never really did much. Well they did stuff with each other, but not so much with me. Maybe because I was the new friend. I was the one that joined them. They were established. It's weird how it all turned out. And to think I want to be a Pastor. I'm not really a big people person. Communication definitely isn't one of my strong points. It's strange to think about some days. Not depressing or anything. Just weird.

If the word fuck offends, skip this post

So who the fuck was the useless fucking shitbag city engineer that decided to send out trucks to plow the fucking road during fucking rushour? Friday is the one fucking day a week when the rushhour traffic in the morning is semi-fucking decent, and they put out fucking plows. So then it takes an hour fucking longer to get to work. I deal with this stupid fucking traffic every other day of the week, why did they have to go and fuck up my friday too? And there are lots of other people out there far more impatient than I. Thus all the fucking accidents this morning, creating an even worse fucking mess for the rest of us to deal with. For fucks sake!

At one point the plow took an exit and the traffic sped up, kind of. It would have been better if the useless fucking idiot in front of me decided to drive faster than fucking 80 in the fast lane in a 100 zone. Useless fucking twat. And suprise suprise, when I pass him, it's a little old asian woman who can't see over her fucking steering wheel. It's called the fucking slow lane woman. Or don't drive in rush hour. Fuck, don't even drive at all, get the fuck off the road.

Oh, but then another plow decides to get back onto deerfoot infront of me, so I'm sitting there, again, driving less than my speedometer even fucking registers. Once again because some useless fucking city fucking engineer decided that rushhour is a perfect time to plow the fucking road. So fuck off you useless fucking shitbags.
And suprise suprise, there is another accident. Some dumb shit impatient fuckhole couldn't find his fucking breakpedal in time to stop behind the useless fucking asswipe that is the person in front of him and runs into him, casuing him to hit the guy in front of him, who then decides to run into the cement barrier in the middle of the fucking road. And it gets even better. By the time I get to the accident they are starting to clean things up, when one of the cars that is all smashed to shit and is sitting perpenfuckingdicular to traffic rolls out and almost t-bones the car in front of me. So it's rolling across the road, stopping our already slow fucking progress and the cops and tow trucki driver have to run out and push the fucking cart back across the lanes of traffic and hook it up to the tow truck. Why the fuck didn't they do that in the first place? Or, even better, why the fuck didn't someone put it in park, or put the fucking parking break on. USELESS FUCKING PIECES OF FUCKING SHIT ASSHOLES! ARGHHHHHH!

Why the fuck do I even live in this fucking city? Why can't I live in fucking Yellowknife where the only reason you are late for work is because you are hung over and slept through your alarm. Seriously, this is just fucking stupid. How can the pros possibly out weigh the cons? Why are there so many fuccking people living in cities? It doesn't make any sense. Fucking society. Fucking culture. Fucking everything.

And I woke up feeling that today was going to be a good day. I left 30 minutes earlier so I could get to work early and get some e-mails out, I was happy that it was Friday and traffic would be good. Now I'm just right fucking pissed off, and I have a meeting with this useless asshole of a fucking IT consultant whose job I'm taking over, and who thinks he's better than me and is all full of fucking attitude, and I have to deal with this fucking co-worker from another office whose been with the company for like 15 years, and knows lots, but is a royal fucking asshole and I'm going to fucking lose it one of these days. There is this woman in our Edmonton office who is one of the rudest fucking women I have ever dealt with, and everytime she calls for my help I want to fucking strangle her. I told her yesterday to be a little more polite, but she just ignored me. Next time I'm just not going to help her. And this fucking woman in my office who everyone tiptoes around because they dont' want to get on her bad side or something is being a royal fucking pain in my ass. She tries to act all sweet, but is a coniving bitch, and I have no patience for her and her antics, and she doesn't like that. Fuck her. Fuck all these useless fucking shitbags. Let me do my fucking work without all your fucking bullshit.

Words of the day: fuck(ing) and shitbag

Daylight Saving Time

Okay, so I am confused. Apparently in August of 2005, the Congress in the US decided to extend daylight savings time beginning this spring. So the whole "Spring ahead" will now happen 3 weeks earlier, on the second Sunday in March (March 11, 2007) and "Fall back" one week later, on the first Sunday in November. This means that there will be more daylight for kids trick-or-treating. :)

So how come nobody knows about this? And is it only the US, or are we doing it up here in Canada as well? I remember they made a big fuss about it at the time, about whether or not we were going to do it just because the Americans did. That if we did we'd just be rolling over to follow suit like we normally do. But this time it just makes sense. It would be stupid if we didn't.

Okay, so we are. Article is here.

Oh, and remember, it's Daylight Saving Time. Not Daylight Savings

Ramblings

It was my Jo's birthday yesterday. So a belated Happy Birthday to her! It is so sad that despite the fact that we are in the same city again, I don't get to see her on her birthday. I don't get to see her all week actually. Stupid 2 jobs...

Speaking of that, I'm getting quite good at being a little Timbit. There is one dude that comes in every night shortly before 9, orders a large coffee, 4 sugar, 2 cream, heated for a minute, and then put in a to-go cup. He's a strange one. And some of the little high school kids enjoy making fun of the fact that I'm 24 and a trainee at Tim Hortons.

High School Girl (HSG): What grade are you in?
Me: I'm not.
HSG: Really? How old are you
Me: 24. I'm an IT guy at a company up the street.
HSG: haha, you are 24 and a trainee at Tim Hortons. I thought you were like 16. Maybe 18.
Me: Ah well, it is paying for my new house.
HSG: Just wait until finds out. He's going to make fun of you so much.
Me: Really? Oh no, I'm going to made fun of by a high school kid?!? My life is over! Whatever am I going to do with my self?!

At which point she just looked at me funny and walked away. See, I'm making friends already.

Actually most of the folks have been pretty cool to work with so far. Helpful and such. I guess it helps that I'm competent, and actually show up for my shifts, unlike the other 2 new guys that were supposed to start this week and didn't show up. Or the other girl who quit after her first shift. She just never came back. So I'm doin alright. I've already mastered teh coffee stations and am quickly learning the till, which I wasn't even supposed to start until next week. Soon I'll be working the sandwich station, and hopefully be moved to the back so I don't have to deal with customers. Woo hoo!

I was warned before I started that my clothes will stink after working there, and boy was she right. I have a uniform and everything, but I already dispise the smell. And to have it on my clothes when I get home is disgusting. I feel like hanging my uniform outside every night to air it out. *blech*

I now own a little piece of the internet! :D http://www.theneufelds.org is mine! I'll be able to setup webpages, and e-mails for my family. I'll setup a wedding page for people to rsvp, or link to the registry, all sort of possibilities. I can start hosting all my pictures, setup an FTP for transferring files to people in other locations. Endless fun! All for the low low price fo 5 bucks a month. Which I'm going to get covered by hosting an FTP for the worship stuff for church. Yay for entrepreneurialship! (i actually spelled that right on my first try!)

Oh, and a tip for those of you looking at buying an external harddrive (hdd) for backup, or portable storage, or whatever. External hdd's are expensive, still around a buck a gig while internal hdd's often go on sale for less than $0.50/gig. I just bought a 500 gig that I need for work for under $200. So catch a suitably sized internal hdd on sale, and then buy yourself a hdd caddy. They are around $60 and you just put the hdd into the caddy and you are good to go. It runs off USB 2.0, or firewire, just like an out-of-the-box external harddrive, but is a fraction of the price. :) Just a tip.

Oh, a great hot drink for later in the evening, a decaf mocha. :) Half hot chocolate, half decaf coffee, with whip cream and chocolate sprinkles. All the flavor, none of the caffiene. (good for those that want something nice to drink in the evening without the caffiene to keep you up all night)

4 Things

Stole this earlier from H and her sis.

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Lifeguard/Swimming Instructor
2. Millwright (Industrial Mechanic) Apprentice
3. Full Service Gas station attendendant in Yellowknife during the winter
4. IT guy

Four Movies I have watched over and over:
1. Rent
2. Braveheart
3. Gladiator
4. The Little Mermaid

Four Places I have Lived:
1. Yellowknife, NT
2. Faro, YT
3. Snow Lake, MB
4. Winnipeg, MB

Four TV shows I love to watch:
1. Grey's Anatomy
2. Heroes
3. Beauty and the Geek
4. Prison Break

Four Places I've Been On Vacation:
1. Australia (from Sydney to Cairns)
2. Kelowna, BC
3. Calgary, AB
4. Vienna, Austria

Four of my favorite foods:
1. KFC Gravy
2. Beef
3. Popcorn
4. Ichiban

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. With Jo
2. On a sunny beach (with Jo)
3. At home (with Jo)
4. a random street in a random city somewhere in a non 3rd world country (with Jo)