Fast Track To A Career: Welcome To McDonald's

First off, NO I am NOT going to have a career at McDick's. I only plan on being there for 10 more months at the most.

But my regional manager (aka The Boss) wants me to be. She doesn't want to "lose" me.

For all of you who may not know, I am absolutely terrified of getting in trouble. I have no idea where this came from, I never got in trouble as a child, I have never been grounded. But the prospect terrifies me.

So when the manager asked to talk to me at the end of my shift, for some reason my mind automatically jumped to this.. First words out her mouth: "So I've had multiple managers coming to speak to me.." OH SHIT. WHAT DID I DO?????

Oh, maybe I should let her finish: "and having very positive feedback about you." Oh shucks, me?

Haha jumped the gun a bit much? Anyways, she said many nice things about me, reinforced the point that it wasn't just one manager who had that feeling. So that was nice to hear. But then, "I want to get you on track for a career at McDonald's". Uh... HELL NO. I had to act quick and restrain a laugh..

Of course there are options: trainer, then crew leader, then manager. I suppose being a trainer would be okay. At least it would be a raise. But my availability would have to be a lot better. It's fairly unlikely this could work during the school year, but summer would work nicely. Then quitting the census would be absolutely no problem at all. I just wonder how quickly I could make this happen. Of course there's probs studying involved, she said she could give me the book.. lol.

I actually think I'll go talk to her and find out a bit more info on that, but it sounds like a good deal. And heck, after only a month here? I'll take it.

I'm really just glad that I got recognized by the big boss that I'm working hard. Because most days it seems like all they care about are numbers and times.

So bye bye census. This is likely my last week doing you. But then I feel bad. Our team has already had 3 people quit, Victoria will be leaving as well soon, so especially if we go within a few days I think that'll look really bad. Like we can only work together.. But I suppose why should I care too much? I can forget about it once I'm gone and I don't have to use census as a reference :p (I have Timmy Ho's and McDick's for that haha)

PS: 10 days till Calgary!! SO stoked for the stampede and to be able to chill in the SUN on my DECK. (I will shoot someone if we get crappy weather like last year)

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Facebook Friends

Here's a topic, and not just a rant about my life. Well... that's a lie. It stemmed from my life.

Lesson: Never have facebook chat open.

Why? Because you get those random people who added you just because you spoke to them a few times and you have a bunch of mutual friends. And then they decide to chat with you.

I do not know annnnything about you except for where your from..

I maay have given you a drunken hug but that gives you a reason to chat? I don't think so.

If you have something to talk about, or have a question. Then sure. But if you just say hey and then make no effort..? Don't bother me!

Maybe you're bored..? Go chat with someone you can actually chat with!!

It's that awkward chat silence, with is ironic, but still. It feels like I'm ignoring you. Not cool. Oh well, at least I'm a year away from (possibly) seeing you again.

Then, after a practically non existent convo, do I have to say goodbye?!

I have learnt this lesson, but I wanted to talk to a friend so there was nothing I could do about it.. grrr..

I would say this ranks quite high on my list of pet peeves :p

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Random Saturday

Here are a few things I'd like to comment on..

1) McDick's asked me Friday if I could work Sat morning. I said no. They called me this afternoon to ask if I could work in the evening.. WHAT DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND ABOUT NO WEEKENDS, THAT I HAVE 2 JOBS!?!?! Now really..
2) I'm learning to hate the sentence "I'm not supposed to let anyone in.." Well I'm a government employee there on government business, I really don't care what you're not supposed to do..
3) On the subject of MCDicks, I overheard my name said between two managers, then they asked me how long I had been there for. Like a month, I replied. I'm hoping that's a good thing and that maybe a raise is in order..?! Because god knows I'm better than half the people who have been there for much longer..
4) I was excited to start learning the guitar but I'm juts too exhausted for it now..
5) I also want to start singing again, aka singing along to songs when no one is home so I can regain the strength to my vocal chords. I really want to record a duet with Steph, how cool would that be. (ps. we sound scary identical sometimes)
6) Plants hate me. They are all alive but not exactly flourishing.. there's a reason why I never bought any myself..
7) Can the U of A please just tell me already if I got in or not?!
8) It's annoying when there are so many things to look forward to but time just ends up slowing down.
9) I watched the Adjustment Bureau. They so copied an idea from Fringe-sorta. I love the take on it though, and how it raises religious questions. I love movies where they make you think. And Matt Damon was a nice treat :)
10) 14 days till Calgary and Stampede festivities!!
11) Saw a man in cowboy hat, jeans and boots. Almost told him he was two weeks too early and in the wrong city

Any plans for Canada day? I hope some friends will be joining me for at least fireworks down by the river. As long as I can stay awake..

In A Mood

But good news!! It's a good mood! :D
Honestly, I can't remember just feeling good about my self! It's not anything in particular but I just feel good! I think it's a bad thing that it's been such a long time since I've felt this way..

What caused this? Oh something called sunshine. And soccer. But ironically soccer almost should have put me in a horrible mood. Usually we have like 20 people showing up, but today we only had 6.. but 2 randoms joined us so we had enough to at least scrimmage. And we won!! The only game of the season and it doesn't even count since we had two players that weren't from our team lol. But it was a great game. Then we just sat around for 15 minutes enjoying the sun and chatting. Very nice people :) I almost wish I was going to the Orientation BBQ now (my soccer team is made up of orientation volunteers for next year), but I'm going to have to work the stupid census.

By the way I'm in such a good mood that that evil word doesn't even get me down!! I wish I could capture this in a bottle!! But alas, I'll be in bed in about 1.5 hrs, then up at 6am and grumpy again.

Reasons why I should be in a bad mood:
1. It rained again
2. I burnt my arm again on the oven (and it's killing!)
3. Most of my soccer team is flaky
4. McDick's got on my nerves again today ("90s target time Jessica..x10" I've been here a month, so gee, really?!?!)
5. I'm alone
6. Census every day for the rest of the week

Reasons why I'm in a good mood:
1. We won our game
2. Nice people at soccer
3. It didn't rain on (my parade) me on my way home
4. I got to play soccer

The math really doesn't work out but I'm a-okay with that!!
And it looks like I'm really into the list thing lately..

Now to go work on my abs, shower and settled down for the night!

Calgary in 18!!

It's Not Worth It

Pro's
- $14+/hr
-Looks good on a resume
-"Exercise"
-Get paid for meetings (aka. doing nothing)

Con's
-SO much walking that it's painful, therefore it's tough to get min 15hrs/week
-Productivity dependent on people being home
-Productivity = the biggest deal in the world
-May get caught in the rain
-I hate it
-If Victoria doesn't go with me, I need to bike 30 mins just to get there = super sore muscles
-Makes me exhausted
-I hate it

...... I'm really not sure what I want to do right now. I'm at the point where I really don't want to continue, as in I would quit at the end of the month. I feel like that's better than getting fired.. I'm not really at that point yet, but could be soon, who knows. I just really don't enjoy it but at the same time I'm not someone who quits when the going gets tough.. But can I take it? I'm definitely going to have a better feeling about it all after our meeting tomorrow..

But, if I quit, then what? No one will hire me for July/August. If they weren't hiring in May I doubt they're hiring in June. I suppose I'll have to hope to catch a break on kijiji.. Orr go full time at mc dicks, yay. But then I suppose I'll be able to volunteer!! We shall see I suppose.

Man I hate the summer. I can't wait to go back to Calgary for a few days and take a break from real life!
Supreme penny pinching here I come!

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Solution!!

The answer was staring me right in the face the whole time x2!! As in the two guitars sitting in my living room. I had originally had this though at the beginning of the summer but for some reason I had forgotten all about it! So I took to the internet to find a good beginner tutorial. My sister, who is extremely good at guitar, tried to teach me when we were younger, happy birthday was the song of choice, but I guess I really didn't have the patience for it.

Now I have all the time in the world to practice so why not?

Ode to Joy

Let It Be - The Beatles

House of the Rising Sun


Still a few problems here and there, most of the time from going A to C, or even just the B string to the G string. I've covered notes from the first 4 strings, so I think I'm going to try and find some songs that use just those so I can nail them down. Then move on to the last two. Again, perfect them, and then move on to chords. Sound good?

Note: If you view this post in RSS, you can listen to my recordings if you'd like. Blogger doesn't have a music player so unfortunately it'll make you download it..
Thumbs up for only playing for a couple hours?

Warning: More Complaining

OK.. it's that time again, where I start hating summer and wishing school was about to start. Why?

Well let's see, let's do the math. 30% of a day is spent sleeping-swell. Some days I wish it was more, so I would have less of nothing to do. Then, I spend another 30% working. But I dread when those days come because I have to wake up so damn early!! And then I can't wait to be done because I'm hungry and my feet hurt. So there leaves 40% of a day to do anything. Unfortunately there's not much to do when you live by yourself (not counting the temp roommate), and really only have one friend in the city that you can call up whenever to do whatever.

When that happens, it's great! Company, someone to laugh with and make the day go by quickly. But I can't rely on that person all the time, they have a life, other friends and frankly, you can only spend so much time with 1 person.

So what to do to pass the time when there's no one around? I've gone for bike rides and have hung out on campus in the sun, but there's not much to do. Or at least not much that is fun to do by yourself, without feeling like a tool. I would have loved to go to the pool today, but alone..? Err, no thanks.

Solutions? Make new friends? How?
Start later at McDicks so as to increase sleeping time to 40%, and decrease afternoon nothingness? Sounds like I'll have to resort to that. I just feel bad if I change my availability on them, again, for the 3rd time in like 2 weeks. And I think they need early morning people. Maybe talk to (who?!) about being available for 7am but would prefer later starts? It just seems like a big hassle. But I know that if it's going to make a big deal in my life, influence my happiness, then I should really do it.

And it doesn't help that the f'n Census is pissing me off. How on EARTH are people doing a min of 20 hrs a week? I can maaaybe be get 10..! I honestly wouldn't care if I got "let go" because of poor productivity. But it's not my fault if people are never home! So I have to go after supper I guess. And it's a freaking pain in the butt to bike all the way down to bdoon! (Got that out of my system-sort of)

Ideally:

SLEEP: 11-9
Work: 10-4
Miscellaneous: 4-6
Census: 6-8
Miscellaneous: 8-11

There's still too much free time though! I don't understand where the need to be doing something all the time came in. I did plenty of nothing during the school year and was fine with it. But maybe that's it, I've had enough and am fed up with it? Gah!

Mostly I've just posted this to complain-and for something to do! (Though I could have gone to bed 30mins ago, which I will do now.)
I look forward to the days that I am happiest, but they are few and far between. I am actually looking forward to going home in July. I might take a whole week off to chill down there.

Night all! I hope everyone is enjoying their summers more than I am on most days!

Ps. I forgot about the weekends, those suck most. But I also forgot that I could go bowling for free.. but I kind of want to wait till the lanes get redone next month so my balls don't get destroyed. Though I do have 2 "new" ones... we shall see. If I remember, I keep forgetting!

Watch It!

Lately Adam Sandler's movies have been slightly less than desirable for me to go see, especially that new one with the penguins. So I was unsure what to think of his newest DVD release. It's called "Just Go With It". Jennifer Aniston is the female lead, and Nicole Kidman costars.

I was looking at rogervideos.ca to see what new movies had come out so I could download one and watch. I came upon this one, didn't recognize the title, but I saw who was starring, and, being a huge Jennifer Aniston fan, I had to see it.

First impression? Holy CRAP has she gotten old! But that image only lasts so long-I'm pretty sure it was makeup.

I don't want to say too much incase you decide to check it out, but it is most definitely hilarious. Finally another "serious" movie from Sandler, but he manages to add in his quirky comedy and it doesn't ruin the movie; in my opinion anyways.

It's funny, I was looking at the rotten tomato reviews on iTunes, and the critics just tear it to shreds, and rate it only at 18%. But actual customers/viewers give it 4/5 stars.. Maybe it's just not for everyone.. though that's like all movies..

Eh, whatever, I LOVE it. If you're bored, go check it out and let me know what you think! It definitely ranks up there with the likes of "The Ugly Truth", aka something I will watch 1000000 times if I'm bored!

Ps. Throwing Nicole Kidman in there was a good choice. And the guy who plays Eddie is hilarious!

Volunteering

Not much to report, but I miss blogging, it's been a whole 5 days since I wrote last. What's gone on in the past 5 days? Well actually quite a lot I guess. I volunteered on the weekend for CBC's Play On! It's their 4v4 ball hockey tournament and they have it in each major city. Saturday I worked it 2-8:30 and Sunday 1-6:30 doing scoreboard. So just writing down the scores for all the players and everyone to see and then handing in the game sheets to the "statistician". I got REALLY good at writing upside down, some people were complementing me on it even haha. It was a lot of fun, and the two ladies I was working with were awesome. One was the grandma of the Play On family. Seriously. This is a big family affair. The two in charge are married and this lady is one of their parents. Then these two have children volunteering and also in the tourny. They also have a niece running the volunteers. Who knows who else they had there. Quite the operation!

The next day was the same but less busy, so I got really bored. Not much happened that day, but I got a free booster juice since I was volunteering-yay!

So what did I get out of that weekend? Well, fun for one. But also something to put on my resume (duh), something to do for next year, coupons, 2 gift certificates and a mini "disposable" like digital camera, and a a little drawstring bag thing. Not much but at least it was something. I also snagged a ride home because JK was nice enough to stay til I was done, woo!

When I was picking up my free stuff, the volunteer coordinator and the one lady I was working with both days were thanking me for all my help, blah blah, how awesome I was, blah blah (lol). I was supposed to get a free oilers shirt, but obviously I declined. I said why and they were like, "just when we were starting to like you!!" LOL. But I will for sure be returning next year, but only on the Saturday.

The other venture for volunteering was for bikeology and I finally heard back from them the other day. But since their events are in the evenings, I decided since I had yet to really start my census job that it wouldn't be a good idea to do it this week. Maybe next.

But ya, now I'm kinda busy busy! Working 4 days a week this week, then going home for a few hours to relax and PUT MY FEET UP (they are SO sore!), then going to do census, aka walking around for 2hrs+ is very exhausting..!

Sooo maybe I don't need the volunteering anymore.. hmmm..

PS. It's ALREADY June 7th?!?!? (But that's a-OK with me!)

Time

So I realized this afternoon while laying on my couch staring blankly at the TV screen that it is NOT healthy to be doing nothing all day. So I decided that with my extra time I'll volunteer, because there's no way I'm going to work full time at McDonald's. And census can only really be done in the evening, unfortunately. The more I think about, I'm not a fan of this job. I guess I just need to get used to it though. Just do a few hours every day after supper I guess?

So, volunteer options. I found the edmonton youth volunteer website and found a lot. What sucks is that things are usually on the weekends or evenings! I can't really do evenings because of census and the same goes for weekends, but it's more do-able since I can do either whenever, really. I already signed up for quite a few shifts for June with this organization called bikeology. You can guess what they are about. Anyways, June is bike month and they're having a festival on the 18th. There's a whole bunch of cool stuff happening, like free movies, mocktails, music, food, etc. On the actual day of the festival there is A BUNCH of stuff that is going on!! I almost don't want to volunteer for it, and instead go and participate in it. But I wouldn't have anyone to go with. SO. Might as well see a bit of it while volunteering and meeting new people! I've also signed up for the movie nights, sounds pretty slack haha. Hopefully I can hear from them soon, actually get a position and figure out a schedule so that I can book some days off from McDicks if I need to.
I also found something about a race or something? Not too sure on that, but that's on the back burner until I hear from bikeology.

Then I had the idea of the SPCA, but apparently they have a WAITING LIST for volunteers. HOLY CRAP! So no go. It was a good idea though.

JK also mentioned CBC's Play On this weekend. It might be too late but that would be cool! Honestly, some of the stuff I found.. I wish I could volunteer as a job!!

I think doing all this: working 2 jobs, volunteering, soccer, bowling from time to time, and occasionally hanging out with a friend or 2 should make the summer go by fast enough. It should also make me happy. Because, right now I'm not happy and am wishing the summer was OVER. Sad, I know. So let the fun begin!!

xxxxx

The census has commenced. As I have taken a life long oath of secrecy I can't divulge any information regarding my job, but I can and will say that it's not as tough as I thought it would be. So I'm glad. Plus I'll get better at it after a few days. As long as we get the information I think that's all the government should care about.

Other than that.... I've done nothing. Oh but I have discovered that with gmail you can call anywhere in Canada and the US for free! I wish I had known that at the beginning of the year so I could have called my fam whenever. It's too late now, I really don't need/want to talk to them.

Update on things keeping me busy (lame, but I really am that bored):
-I'm on the 3rd last disc of Friends!! I'll probs be done tomorrow :( I guess I'll start reading. Actually that's an awesome idea! I can go do that outside!! :)
-I'm in need of more friends on LJ to keep up my rep on sims hospital so I have added randoms but have closed my journal to everyone
-I need to go for a run tomorrow! I had said I would go this morning but I was just too tired/lazy. Ugh.
-I turned down bowling tomorrow cuz I have soccer. I should have gone to soccer last week and done bowling tomorrow. Oh well.


There's honestly not much else to report on. I have a roommate now, but that really doesn't change much except for that I'm sharing a space with someone. Next year I'm getting a "real" job, aka 8-4 (ish) job. I'd much rather be bored at night than during the day.

Can't wait for my friends in Calg to come visit! I'm expecting 3 visits this summer :)