spoiled chinese girl

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.

So Friday’s potluck was not as a raving success as I’m sure everyone was expecting.  Considering the fact that many people were purposely not putting what they were bringing into the meal because of all the rules that were being imposed on us, the whole thing went slightly astray.

So the rules were:

• only 2 dishes of each “type” allowed (i.e. pasta, meat, fish/shrimp, veggies)
• no chips & dip allowed
• no “snacks” allowed
• only two desserts allowed
• no pork (because the owners are Muslim)
• no chicken (because the HR lady was bringing a turkey)

Plus others I’m probably forgetting.

Well, one of the two people who signed up for dessert didn’t make it because she felt ill the night before and had no time.  Half the people either surprised us with what they were bringing, or lord knows they probably didn’t bring anything and were quiet about it.

People surprised us by bringing chicken anyways.

The HR Lady’s turkey was not throughly cooked, and the inside parts were still pink and raw.

Not a whole lot of people ate my pasta salad that I had food-coloured to be pink and blue.

I can’t wait for next time.  That was just stupidity at it’s finest.

We’re having a pot luck this Friday for Thanksgiving.  We haven’t had a pot luck in a while and I’d completely forgotten just how insane it is around pot-luck time.  Every pot luck we get, there are more rules and regulations and makes it more and more unfriendly towards those who just want to have a fun go at it.

The company has had a number of pot lucks since I joined back last November.

The first two pot lucks I made a pasta salad. Generally going over very well with the public at large.  The third I made cucumber sandwiches, not realizing that cucumber sandwiches were much more than just white bread and cucumbers.  The most recent pot luck I made chocolate chip cookies out of a cookie dough mix and added blue food colouring for fun.

Well the first pot luck also brought my coworker who literally moved house the week prior and had been eating out all week due to not having a functioning kitchen, to bring a standard fare of chips and dip.  But an extravagant one at that.  After the first pot luck we were getting memos of “No bringing chips and dip.  Meal-like dishes and dessert only.”

The first pot luck I believe also had a second co-worker buy pizza for the group.  The pizza went amazingly quick and was very popular.  Somehow when this person mentioned they might do pizza again, it was mentioned in a private manor (but shared to the rest of the group) that pizza is discouraged.  Why, I’m not certain to say the least.

The memo’s also got longer.  Bringing napkins, plates and cutlery was no longer an option, unless you were willing to throw drinks into the mix.  But now all of that together is not an option.

The rules used to be 3-4 appetizers like salads, 6-8 main course dishes, and 3-4 desserts were on the menu.  This has changed to two dishes maximum for each type of food, i.e. salad, meat, pasta, fish/shrimp, vegetables.  Still no chips and dip.

The pot luck for this coming weekend?  “Only two cakes allowed for dessert.  Snacks are to be excluded to bring in more lunch-time dishes.”

Because the difference between 10 lunch dishes and 12 lunch dishes is so bloody much.

Seriously.  There is about, if not over, 20 people in the office.  2 cakes is not going to… well… cut it.  And what’s with the “no snacks” thing.  Obviously this means the cookies I planned on baking.  Because cookies would be horrendous to have during a pot-luck.  Because heaven forbid that people might want some during their afternoon break.

The rules.  THE RULES!

Seriously, there is some SERIOUS talk of mutiny during the pot-luck and having everyone just bring their lunch like normal on the day.  My other form of mutiny was to buy a bag of frozen peas, or two cans of mushrooms and just open that pour into a bowl and call it a meal.