May change jobs & shift

An opening for a receiving job opened up in my department this week. My drunk ass fuckin co-worker, Chris, got his drunk, smelly, shitty ass fired for continuously coming to work drunk. He has been warned enough times that the company fired his ass. So there's now an opening. I decided to put in for the job, mainly because I want to get onto 1st shift. The position doesn't involve a pay increase, due to the company's grade level pay scale having receiving lumped into warehouse, which is a grade 4. Since I'm already a Grade 4, there's no pay increase. Just more work & more responsibilities. I also would get my own e-mail account with the company, and that's not what I'd like, but my potential job would require it.

My job would involve labeling stock that comes to us from our Mexico plant, handle consignment, pull orders for parts to be assembled at our Mexico plant, load & unload (mainly unload trucks) trucks that come in with stock of some sort. I would be a backup for pulling orders for Pella Windows and handling the receiving papers that another co-worker handles. My hours would be 6:45am - 3:15pm Monday - Friday. I currently work from 2:45pm - 11:15pm Monday - Friday pulling shipping orders and loading trucks to pickup shipments. I even handle occasional deliveries in receiving too, when everyone in receiving went home for the day. Receiving only works 1st shift, while regular warehouse associates work 1st & 2nd shifts. The only reason there's a 3rd shift, is because there needs to be someone to clear the pack & label line. Otherwise, there wouldn't be anyone needed for 3rd shift in warehouse.

I'm nervous, but I hope I do get the job, as I want days, and be able to relax in the evenings. It would even allow me to go to Chicago in the evening hours during the week. I've missed a lot of events during the week, due to working 2nd shift at my current job since October 9, 2003. Also, except for a 6 week period in 2003, I've worked 2nd shift since September 12, 2002, when I left UPS for the last time to work at a salad dressing plant, and then a window parts company, then 2 other jobs before returning to my current job. Working there 3 years & 4 months as a temp, then 2 years & 1 month as an employee, I deserve to get this job, as I know some job duties.

I'll keep everyone posted on this.

I'm preparing most of my meals now

I have taken the first step at taking away some of the cooking from my mother, as she refuses to stop fixing big meals. She also is in a rut when she makes meals. It has been a challenge for me to make my own meals, as I haven't done that in over 6 years. So I'm adding some variety, and make changes into something I might have a lot.I recently made some BBQ chicken with rice-a-roni, pasta-roni, and some fresh green beans cooked on a griddle with garlic. The fresh green beans were good, but the preparation to make them was tedious, as I've never dealt with fresh green beans. There was no way I would have let my mom cook the green beans, as she would have boiled them. I wanted them to stay crunchy. Since I added garlic to it (approximately 15 cloves of garlic), it had a lot of extra flavor. I did keep the vampires away for 3 days. The green beans were lightly coated with olive oil, and stirred constantly to keep them from burning. I forgot to add that I added a twist to the BBQ chicken. I also added a bit of Mrs. Dash to it to give it additional flavor.

Another meal consisted of pork chops (my mom did cook that, as it was Shake & Bake), cheesy rice-a-roni, pasta-roni, green beans with garlic. I bought too much green beans, that I had to have them a second day. I believe I bought 3 lbs. of green beans. It was alright. Another meal again consisted of chicken sprinkled with Mrs. Dash, snow peas with garlic cooked in a little olive oil, and some rice-a-roni. Snow peas weren't as bad, as I was able to cook them as is, unlike green beans, where I had to cut off bad parts of the bean.

Yesterday, I cooked up some pot pies with fried potatoes, and made them with a twist. My mom would just cook up potatoes to be fried in vegetable shortening. I cooked the potatoes (the portion size I wanted) along with garlic in olive oil. Within the last 10 minutes of cooking them, I added some mixed vegetables to the potatoes. It added a lot of flavor too, along with the garlic. I did use 10 - 12 cloves of garlic. So my meals will be having a lot of garlic to it.

I have yet to figure out what all I'll have. I just know that I want to have some variety, and I won't get that with my mom making my meals, nor will I have meals with the right portion sizes either with her making my meals. I haven't lost any weight yet, but I'm not gaining any either, as my meals are keeping me full longer. I do plan to have some vegetarian spaghetti within 2 weeks. I'm also working on cutting back on protein too. That'll help keep me from getting bigger, as I've been getting too much protein.

So if anyone has any suggestions on what I should make, please leave a comment in my blog. I will take suggestions, and look at what might sound good to me. I need plenty of suggestions as I'm trying to get back into making my own meals.