spoiled chinese girl

Some people… for srsly…  Couple nights ago me & camera guy were getting a gigantic grocery shop in for his kitchen (what? *innocent look* I was getting tired of mini-wheats, pasta and ice cream!) and after we did that we ran to the local BK for a late nite meal (after buying $50+ of groceries…) well, late as in probably just around 9pm.

Short little annoying bald-headed dude who was too groovy for his own good (complete with blue-tooth headset… damn, I can’t make fun of those anymore, I’ve joined the ranks of owning those bloody headsets… although mine’s still in it’s box, heh.) is at the front of the line, and I could already think he was an annoying prat.

Then he tries to pay with I guess a gift card?  Which is a completely new thing, that the restaurant hasn’t been set up for, because while they have the machines that read them, they apparently aren’t hooked up.

So it’s back and forth.

Staff can’t accept that form of payment.  He asks what they want him to do.  Staff asks him to choose another method of payment.  He wants to be compensated. Staff can’t offer anything. He wants to be compensated for coming “all this way.” Staff ask him nicely to pay with some other method. He wants to talk to a manager.  Staff basically IS the manager… and can’t do anything (!!!) He wants to be compensated.

While I don’t like getting in the middle of arguments, but was seriously contemplating WHAT to say at that point (I’m pretty sure I was planning on just paying for his meal to get him out of the way) Up pipes a ballsy chick from behind me.

Ballsy Chick: Just pay for your food man! You’re holding up the line!

Then THEY go back and forth! Pay for your food! I’m having a conversation here. And you’re holding up the line, pay and get out already! It’s the holidays! And you’re holding up the damn line!

Somehow “The holidays” got brought into that conversation… I can’t even remember how that worked.  Finally dude probably noticed the 10+ people in line, all staring daggers at him, asks for the store number, then tells mostly said Ballsy chick he hopes her new years sucks too(???) Just to jump in as he’s walking out the door wishing ballsy chick… or all of us… a horrible new years, I decide to yell out “Happy New years to you too!”

So the rest of us are finally able to order.

In the world where the general attitude forced upon us is “All I know is that no one is better than anyone else, and everyone is the best at everything.” (Simpsons… really you needed me to tell you that?) I see two possible solutions.

Staff could have offered him something, I can’t really imagine them getting in trouble for it. A salad or dessert or something of a similar nature for free. It was obvious he wanted the whole meal for free and I wouldn’t agree to that either.  All in the vain attempt at keeping the customer happy… or at least shutting them up.  I don’t generally agree with this practice but desperate times can call for desperate measures.

Customer was being a douchebag, thankfully a somewhat rational douchebag since he wasn’t crying and screaming and waving his arms, but still a douchbag.  Therefore I see no problem in denying him services. Being an adult he should realize that not everything works everywhere, just chosen another method of payment while asking for a phone# to call & complain to or come back the next day.

Either way, he got a phone# and is what… going to call to complain that the other customers were rude to him? Because the staff there were polite and as helpful as could be given the circumstances.

I haven’t remembered my dreams in a while so this is going to be exciting for me. (I also haven’t blogged in forever, sorry about that my few but faithful followers!)

Full house at my place, me, my mom and my dad. Somehow I got the bright idea of cooking a “full” breakfast for myself, but without really any normal food in the kitchen. So I decide that cooking fish (my dad fishes IRL) would be a great breakfast.

Of course, I don’t know how to actually cook fish, let alone a flash-frozen whole fish with all the insides & outsides still attached. But I decided that boiling the fish would be a good way to cook it since there was not enough time to steam it before I had to leave for work. (?)

So I’m in the kitchen, boiling water, mom enters the kitchen, dad enters the kitchen, I’m for some reason boiling this fish… and I start hearing a voice about how the water’s getting kind of warm. I look around but my parents are ignoring me, and this fish that’s sort of in it’s boiling water bath is starting to fall apart so I’m picking at it a bit.

When I notice that it just blinked. My dead, almost-done-cooking fish blinked at me. Very clear eyes like it was still alive, and continues to blink every few seconds. (Do fish even have eyelids IRL???) And the voice continues more panickey about how it’s getting really warm, to finally a screaming in my head about how it hurts, especially when I stick a fork into the side & remove some flesh for my consumption.

Keep looking around, no one else seems to hear any hint of that voice that’s screaming at me about how much pain it’s in & how hot the water is.

That’s about as far as I remember sadly. I probably woke up very confused.

I generally like food. I’m open to new experiences… and I there are only a few things that I won’t eat.  While yes, I’d be what most (myself included) consider to be overweight, that’s mainly due to inactivity, and not due to diet.  I eat three meals a day and I do what I can to maintain sensible portions.

It was bloody irritating as hell dealing with my ex boyfriend and his eating habits.  I only ever watched him eat was white bread or white pasta, extra cheese, extra meat, two… sometimes three servings, and soda. Pepsi in particular.

Never any fruit (unless you count fruit punch that contained obscene amounts of sugar and maybe 5% fruit juice) never any veggies (unless you count potato chips and french fries) never any whole grains… nothing what I would consider HEALTHY.

Anytime I cooked… he would either totally super-saturate everything I cooked in hot sauce to the point that everything was glowing bright red, or just outright refused to eat it.

To either throw a ton of unnecessary seasoning onto food before even tasting it… or to outright refuse to try it because one of the nine ingredients is something you “never eat” (for no good reason) is exceedingly rude.  It’s insulting. I got sick of it, and stopped feeding him.  At my house, he’d be forced to eat or go hungry, at his, he risked getting yelled at by family members for eating “their” food.

And not only was it WHAT he ate… but HOW MUCH.  He claimed he didn’t cost much to keep around because he didn’t eat a lot. He did. He just didn’t eat frequently.  His one meal would equal three of mine. Spaghetti piled sky-high. An entire bag of potato chips. A two-litre bottle of Pepsi. All pretty much in one sitting.  Coupled with his inactivity of sitting in front of the TV, the computer, and his Xbox360 for HOURS at a time, he was somehow still mystified that he was gaining weight.

Not to mention… any time we went out for a meal at any restaurant or fast food joint, his meal would on average cost twice what mine would. And of course I was paying always the one pulling out my wallet for these meals.

His family lifestyle didn’t help either.  They all live on pre-packaged, over-processed, often frozen foods, reheated in the microwave, so it’s obviously what he’s grown used to.

It’s just sad… because there’s only so much microwave radiation one person should really be ingesting.

Test run of cupcakes for the halloween pot-luck hosted by the Toronto Unicyclists (www.torontounicyclists.ca)

This was some of the most elusive and most harrowing experiences that I’d ever had. I haven’t had to quit a job in quite some time. But I finally did it. On my birthday. I gave my notice that I was leaving the company I’d slaved over for the past year and a bit. There was honestly nothing so freeing and such a weight was off my chest after handing over a simple piece of paper.

Basically I’d been gunning for a new job for a while now, I’d gone on interviews here and there and nothing really came of it. I really super duper wanted to get back into the printing industry as that’s what I went to school for. It’s not my absoloute dream job but it’s something I would look towards because I spent so much time learning the industry, that I felt not being in it was having my education go to waste, especially since I was doing a job that needed no “higher education” its not like I was able to apply my degree in any sense at my current job at the tile company.

Plus as I’m sure my many (*sniggers*) readers have deducted, I wasn’t 100% happy at my job at the tile company. I am/was barely 50% happy with the job. And that was to begin with. Then the rules started, and the regulations started, and I could see it going downhill from there.

And there was my dismal 3 month review that came while I was 9 months into my job. Then my dismal annual review, and even more dismal annual raise. And the rules, and regulations, and the power trips…
But yes, I got a new old job. I’m back to working for the envelope company that let me go two years ago, then called me back 3 months later, then I declined their offer to be rehired, and now will be working for them again. They needed me to start immediately, which is going to be a problem.

I digress. My main point was it was more than exciting, I was so nervous, so excited, so EVERYTHING going into this. I didn’t have a printer but I needed a formal resignation letter. I e-mailed it to myself at work so I could print the hard copies. I figured, who cares if I’m using e-mail for personal purposes, what would they do, fire me?

My letter was the shortest and most to the point letter I’d ever written. I copied and pasted from the internet. I filled in the relevant info, and changed one line, just to spite them.

Here was my resignation letter:

To Whom It May Concern:

Please accept this letter as formal resignation of my position as Customer Service Representative with (TILE COMPANY).
December 14, 2007 will be my last day of employment with the company.
I want to thank you for the opportunity to work with this organization.

Sincerely
(MY NAME)

The line that I changed? The online version’s last line was “I want to thank you for the opportunity to work with such a wonderful organization.” I just…….. didn’t feel right leaving that in there.

Being that my birthday was on December 5th, and my last day is December 14th, I wasn’t giving them two weeks notice. I am also leaving knowing full well they are short staffed in the customer service department. A point I had mentioned multiple times. And I have only taken 3 vacation days this year, meaning I still had another 7 to go. And realized AFTERWARDS that I should have taken my full week of vacation for 17th to the 20th, then the two days on the 27th and 28th and could have made my official last day January 2nd and received all the stat. holiday pay. I doubt they would have let me, but I should have tried.

And the HR lady was going on about how I signed a contract saying I would give two weeks notice. Yet she encourages potential and new employees to leave well before two weeks at their current jobs to come to this one. And she said how I was putting them into a difficult spot, which I reminded her that the company really put themselves into this spot because they keep having people leave and not rehiring.

Then the kicker. She told me “Well perhaps it’s better for everyone involved.” (that I was quitting.) So… in her mind, the company is better off without me. I don’t 100% doubt that, but I really thought it was something very rude and not something that a human resources manager should be saying to employees. I just smiled and nodded knowing full well I won’t have to put up with this bullshit anymore. But really. Seeing as how I’m the most senior CSR at the company (only being there 13 months) all of the other CSR’s have been there 3 months or less. And they’re still going to refuse to hire someone new until well after the holidays, knowing another from my department is going on a 2 week long vacation.

I don’t care anymore, and I don’t want to care anymore.

The staff mostly found out the day I did it, some just found out today.

There was a flurry of e-mails being flown across the office for lunch on my last day at work, and we may be ordering in a giant Swiss Chalet meal for me (when the company pot-luck is on the Monday) so it will be something completely done by the staff and not by the company.

For me… I’m just counting it down.

Two. More. Days.