An Update on myself

It's been over a month since I typed up something on here, and my myspace blog. Since taking the daytime receiving job, I feel a lot more tired than I did when I was working afternoons/evenings as an order picker. I haven't learned the job as a Receiving Clerk as I should have been. Delfina seems to want me to do all the heavy work, while she gets to sit on her ass doing all the paperwork. If I'm expected to know how to do the job while she's gone, then I need to learn everything there is to do the job. I don't see it happening, and I'm thinking that my job as a Receiving Clerk might be short lived. I'm trying to stick it out, but I don't know how much longer I can take it. I hate my job even more. I don't know if I'm gonna look for another job completely, or ask to go back to afternoons/evenings. Either way, I'm not getting anything done at home. It either I work late, and come home to someone who sleeps, while I still had some energy, but couldn't do any work around the house. Or, work during the day, be exhausted when I come home, and usually sleep by the time I get home. I also hate Gina's husband, Greg from Vitran. Gina works in QA for the Warehouse side, but isn't supervised by my boss, Dick. Greg & I got into an argument over petty shit a few weeks ago. Other than work, I did make it out to Touché for their IML (International Mr. Leather) festivities. Chicago Eagle is normally in on this, and the big sponsor of the contest. The weren't in on this this year, due to being forced out of their old location on September 1, 2008. They were supposed to have been opened at their new location before Christmas, but something happened that delayed the reopening. But back to Touché. I went there on Saturday & Sunday nights. Saturday night was gear night (wish Sunday was as well), where guys had to have some leather (or a military, police, or fireman uniform) on in order to get into the backroom. It should have been that way last year. I'm glad it was put into place. It kept the twinks, and other people not into that stuff out of the backroom. At least it kept qnomeiu tramtqeu out, along with hisher buddy. Sunday was their night with the people from spankthis. I had an ok time, but wish it had been more exciting. I'll have a separate review on a Polish restaurant I went to, called Czerwone Jabłuszko (Red Apple). It was my first time eating Polish food, and it's a lot different from American food, where Polish food doesn't use a lot of salt & sugar. Most of their food has been incorporated into American cuisine, but theirs isn't salty or sweet like American food is. I'll go more into detail in another blog. I went there on Memorial Day. My niece graduated from high school in Lafayette Indiana, and is looking at college. She's thinking about college down in Indianapolis, rather than in the Lafayette/West Lafayette area. No decision has been made. My brother always bitch that he's broke, but always seems to manage to find the money to go down to Danville Illinois to see this drama bitch named Sharon he met on the internet. He drives a gas guzzling truck that he refuses to get rid of, despite gas prices going back up. He wouldn't stop driving it when gas prices peaked at $4.30 last year. I know he spend over $150 - $200 a week driving his truck. He doesn't need, but he thinks different. He won't sacrifice anything for anyone. I've sacrificed more than he has. I don't feel sorry for him because he makes about $19-$20 an hour, and gets overtime here & there. I'm only making $8.50 an hour, and struggle to make ends meet on that. I haven't been able to move out on my own, and one of my former employers bad reputation costed me jobs that I would have liked to pursue. So the only jobs I get are the ones that usually no one else wants, or leaves after a short period of time, and are low paying. So my brother is someone that shouldn't bitch about money problems. I should be the one to bitch, since I haven't been able to get a good paying job locally, and can't afford to move either, or I'd do it in a heartbeat. I have a mother that wants to stay in Gary Indiana, but I'd like to move to Milwaukee Wisconsin, but I have no family there. My family is primarily local (old retired family members), and those still working live primarily in Arizona & California. I do have family in Michigan, but jobs are that scarce. I also have family in Florida, but to my knowledge, just my cousin, Eric, who's in the coast guard, and living on a military base. So he could move anytime, just like my cousin Todd did, when he left the Marines, but his wife stayed in the Marines, and transferred from Pennsylvania to California. So unless I hit it big in the lottery or a national sweepstakes, I'm stuck, because I have no family in Wisconsin (my family frowns on Wisconsin), and the few people I knew than think I would be better off in Chicago. I like Chicago, but too expensive to live there, and I only like to visit Chicago. If I liked Chicago that bad, I'd stay by choice where I'm at. Where I'm at isn't by choice. Where I stay at is because there aren't many good paying jobs to save money to move, and no one wants to help me out out of town. Most people I meet think Chicago would be the best choice for me. So I can't win. Today's Father's Day, but doing nothing, since my dad has been dead for almost 18 years now. Both of my Grandpas are dead too. That's all for now. If I have time, I'll have that blog created for my review on Czerwone Jabłuszko (Red Apple).

My First Week on Days

This has been a rough week at work, due to a lack of time to prepare myself for readjusting my sleep to be asleep by latest, 10pm. I've made it. I feel that I work a lot harder on days than on afternoons. Other than labeling stock & putting it away, I'm also given a hot list of part #'s that need to be pulled for orders to go out that day. That means I have to get Gina & Denise from QA to check those parts right away. I also have to check the box count that the vendors provide everyday that it matches up with the manifest, and sign off on it. We currently have 3 outside vendors that put parts together, and they also do some rework too (whether problems at the plant, or parts that come back from Mexico that require rework). Besides that, there's unloading trailers that come in from various carriers, as well as a truck that brings us our shipments from Mexico (I hate that one).

Delfina still has to show me more of the job, as I'm her backup for when she's gone for a day, or a week. It's gonna take me time, but I'll eventually get the hang of the job, even if I preferred to work in shipping. Tony also has to show me how to pull & process Pella, as I'm his backup on that. Don is a big help too. I don't know why Chris didn't like Don. Chris was trying to get Don fired by taking all credit for the work, where Don was doing all the work, while Chris sat on the forklift most of the day, and sat at his desk checking & sending e-mail (including checking & sending porn through the company e-mail). Since I came onto days, work is getting put away a lot faster than it did when Chris was there. Besides sitting on the forklift & being at his now former desk, he was also drunk everyday, which got him fired. I am definitely an asset to the shift.

My likes about the job:

It's a day job.

I'm usually keeping busy with my new job.

I have my own desk with a computer by it (even if I can't use internet most of the time).

I'm now included in birthday & anniversary parties the shift holds.

The day shift is never dull, as it's unpredictable.

I'm home in the evening hours.

I can even go out to Chicago once in a while during the week.

My Dislikes about the job:

I had to take a job in the receiving department to get a day job. Not that it's bad, but I like

pulling orders the best, and wanted to process them as well.

I now have a company e-mail address. I don't like having that, as I'm now gonna be scrutinized for any e-mails I might send that aren't good. For as long as I've been there, I've been ok w/o e-mail. Now I have it :(.

I have to hear from Bryce about Richard's b.s. Richard has become an even bigger asshole since I left the shift. Richard even tattles on Cindy's son, Brian. Brian is only part-time, and for the time he's there, he gets more done than what Richard gets done in the same time frame. I expected problems to arise when I switched to days. I was holding up the shift in overall work.

I have to deal with the head honchos (including my boss, Dick), but I knew that, or I wouldn't have put in for the job.

My mom makes me drive the P.O.S. (piece of shit) car to work, since she needs her car for her doctor's appointments. She's got the nicer looking car.

I no longer get to go to any buffets for lunch on Fridays, now that I work days. I'm gonna especially miss going to Old Country Buffet for their very cheap lunch, where one location charged $6.99 for lunch, and another one for 20¢ less from 11am - 3pm Monday - Friday. Regular price is $8.29. Even Golden Corral is now out of the question, as well as any chinese buffet.

For places I can go for lunch, the selection is limited in Lowell. All there is is: Burger King (not crazy about their food), McDonalds (gross), Subway (too expensive), Athens Grill (ok, but I've had better), McVey's (excellent food, but expensive. Only went there once because the company treated us to mark 1Million hours w/o a lost time accident). There's George's (ok, but don't have a lot of time to wait for food, and not sure if they allow advance orders, and carryout). Aurelios (pizza too greasy), Pizza Hut (also too greasy), Italian Outpost (expensive, and pizza is greasy), No. 1 Chinese (overall nasty food, but affordable), Dairy Queen (ok food, but portion sizes are too small), Schoops (good food, but unless money isn't an issue, then this place is expensive, as they don't have lunch & dinner combos). There are a few other places, but I don't remember them all. I heard Pizza House is good, but they're only open for dinner, and closed Mondays. Since I never been there, No comment. At least I'm near some restaurants, unlike when I worked in Wheeling at Hidden Valley Mfg. thru Kelly Services. Most resturants were either in neighboring Mount Prospect, Prospect Heights, or Northbrook.

So while I don't like everything about my job, or things I would do at lunch time, the fact that I'm on days is overall good enough, and once I'm well adjusted in my work hours & sleep, I should be able to get some stuff done at home.

Got the Receiving job.

I was surprised when I showed up at work yesterday, May 1st, that I got the receiving job. Dick said that he was gonna interview me after interviewing 1 other person. He never interviewed me for the receiving job. I believe the reason he picked me over the other 2 was because of experience. I've been in the department for 5 1/2 years (2 years 2 months as an employee), and know parts of the job. I took the job to get on days, but would have preferred to be in Shipping on days. That won't happen anytime soon, due to 4 ladies not planning to leave anytime soon (Beth, Eva, Deb, & Dawn).

My job will be involving receiving deliveries from freight carriers, and from our Mexico plant. I'll also be pulling orders for parts to be assembled for our Mexico plant too. I'll even be putting away stock that comes in from Mexico & from deliveries made by freight carriers. I get trained Monday morning by my co-worker, Delfina. I just hope I can deal with her on a regular basis.

Even though I got the job, I still believe something else will be happening for me outside of the company that will be good for me. I still can't pinpoint it, but whatever it is, it isn't where I work at.

It's sad that my new found luck came at the expense of my former drunk co-worker, named Chris. He refused to seek help for his alcoholism, that he lost his job after being with the company for nearly 9 years. He has the nerve to even call up to get info on who's got the job. He doesn't know yet, but will sometime soon, and be pissed. At least I'll do a better job than he did. At least I'm sober.

Wish me luck.

A Quick Update On The Job

I thought I would add a quick update on the job. So far, nothing new has been heard from about who got the job. A lot of women put in for the job, and many learned what the job consisted of, and backed out. My co-worker, Terri, was one of the ladies that backed out. When she learned what the job consisted of, she didn't want the job. She doesn't do her current job that well on nights.The only reason she is in my department, had to do with cutting back the number of team leaders per shift. She is still paid team leader rate, just in case a team leader position opened up, to where she could go back to being a team leader. Had she pursued the warehouse job further, and was offered the job, then she would have had to take a 50¢ an hour pay cut to be a warehouse associate again (by choice).

Then a lady named Linda put in for the job. Patrick (a material handler) told me that she couldn't handle being in pack & label, due to her health problems. I would only hope Dick doesn't consider her, just for the fact that the job requires lifting as much as 60lbs. at a time. She has trouble with 30lbs.

Another lady named Cindy T. (not to get confused with Cindy M. in my dept.) also put in for the job. I don't think she could do the job either, just because she doesn't like to lift a lot either.

Then there's Patrick, the material handler. He works as a material handler, and lifts 50lb bags from time to time, and wheel over barrels of material. He also has prior shipping & receiving experience from another company in Lowell, that this position would go in his favor. He would also get a 25¢ an hour pay increase if he gets it, since his job is just below mine.

Then there's a temp in my dept., named Don. I don't know if Dick is considering him, but he is the most experienced out of anyone at the job (including myself). He already knows how to do the job, whereas everyone else would need some training (including myself, who only knows bits of the job). So if Dick offered it to anyone other than Patrick or me, then Don should get the job.

I heard a couple of other ladies put in for it, named Kim (pack & label) & Nelly (that's her real name, and is a processor). Kim could deal with weight issue, but her attitude wouldn't be tolerated, that I believe is held against her. Nelly would be crazy to take the job, as her current job pays a lot more than mine does. She makes at least $13.00 an hour. If she ever did put in for the job, Dick interviewed her, and got the job, then she would be taking a serious pay cut. Her position is on a different pay scale, and the possible pay cut would be a lot bigger.

I have yet to be interviewed for the job, and not sure if Dick will interview me. I won't be totally disappointed if I'm not offered the job, because I really would prefer to work in shipping pulling orders. I put in for it to try & get onto 1st shift. I'm thinking that something else might be happening for me. I don't know what it could be, but I keep having these weird dreams about living somewhere else, but not working either. I don't know, and I don't want to speculate on that one. I just know that if anyone really deserves the job; it would be Don. I would be a hypocrite if I thought I should get the job, just because I'm an employee. Dick had the rules bent in order to get me hired in over any employee there in 2007. If Don wants the job if offered to him, then I'd be alright with it. Like I said, I'd rather be in shipping. I believe something else will happen for me outside of the company.

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.