Tuesday, July 20, 2004

The big discussion today at work revolved around Keith. From what I understand, after I left work yesterday, he really wasn't any better than he had been when I was there.

For those who need to know, Keith yesterday was yelling at one employee, Lennie, constantly about the drive-thru. He continuously would ask if Lennie had gotten it yet, if he was going to get it, or he would ask why Lennie wasn't getting it.

This would seem justifiable if not for one thing: the person at the drive-thru hadn't hit the button to alert us to the fact that someone was there, and only Keith could see out the window. However, this fact always seems to be lost on him and he's always yelling for someone to get the window.

It makes a stressful job that much more difficult and is a prime reason why people don't want to work with Keith now.

There was also continued discussion about Jim's pending transfer to the store in Hinckley, which no one is happy with. Jim doesn't really want to go either, but he had no choice and is gone at the end of this month.

This raises a few scenarios for me to ponder in the next month or so. One has me going up front and working either as a stock person or as a shift if I can pull it off. An extreme case is photo, but I'd like to avoid that. Another scenario has Jim having me transfer to his store. However, this will only happen if another tech that works there is removed. We didn't get along when she was at my store before and I know it won't change.

One thing that I do intend to do is get a second job. I need to pull more money in somehow, someway, and if working another job is how I'm going to do it, then I have to suck it up and do it.

However, with my hours, my pickings are slim. I would like to do something similar to what I'm doing now, at least stay in retail since I am experienced in it. That leaves me few options and I know what I'm considering, however I won't openly pursue anything until I find a place that catches my interest that's hiring for my specific need.

This opens up a third scenario however. If I do get a second job and they're willing to pay me more to work full-time than CVS, CVS becomes the part-time job and I take the full-time position at the other job.

Those are just three possible scenarios that I'm facing in the next month or so. For now, I just want to find that second job, supplement my income, and work on reducing my bills as much as possible.

As frugal a spender as I've been lately, I can't hide the fact that I have to repair my credit in a serious way. I'm making strides, but for every stride I make, I make just as big a misstep as well.

The encouraging thing of late is I'm getting credit card offers again. This is a small thing to most, but for me, it's been three years since I had a credit card offer. Even more encouraging, I was approved for one and I have it now.

Unfortunately, there was the kidney stone fiasco which cost me at least three full days of work in pay. That coupled with me changing my insurance companies, my car payment being due, and my mom having a financial problem until she starts getting paid again, left me with, well, no money at all. Which meant I missed my first credit card payment.

Not good.

Luckily, I was able to make an online payment for now, and later this week I'll set up my bank account to automatically pay a certain amount on the card every week. That'll catch it up quick, and with me saving money on my insurance now, I'll be breathing easier.

If it sounds like I have a lot on my plate right now, it's because I do. I'm in the process of handling all my financial shit, trying to get my school shit together in one form or another, and hoping that I can manage getting a new car in an attempt at lowering my car payment in some way.

So yeah, things are a tad bit complicated right now.

Did I mention I'm going to make an effort to try and get back into shape again?

If it seems like I'm trying to do too much, it's not that at all. It's me trying to take my mind off the things that haven't gone well the last month or so in an effort to not dwell on those things.

It was part of the reason why I went to Pittsburgh last weekend. It got my mind off of everything and allowed me to enjoy myself for a change. It's why I'm going to be doing things around the house, getting into shape, and anything else I can get my hands on.

Changes are being made right now to my lifestyle. I can't keep going through life like things are going to be handed to me. No one's going to hand me a good-paying job. I have to go through school, do the necessary things, and earn it. I can do a number of things, whether it be writing or something with computers. I'm fully capable of it.

I am not going to sit around indoors all summer either. I'm usually pretty active. It's time to get back to that, get my energy level back up. I need to sleep better at night and that's accomplished by going to bed earlier. Granted I'm failing miserably again tonight (the time is currently: 1:20am), but part of that was from talking to people that I enjoyed talking to.

I don't want to have anytime to think about Molly. If I think about it, I get mad. If I get mad, I don't want anything to do with her. That's not what I want. However, I don't expect to really hear from her much, if at all, in the near future. If I don't have time to dwell on that, things will be fine.

I have daily priorities written down on a dry-erase board in my room. Every night, I write on it what I intend to do the next day based on what I know needs to be done and what I can do. I also have my work schedule up, a reminder of things that NEED to be done for the week, and in the bottom right corner, a section where I track the Indians' progress throughout the season.

The biggest thing is I need to do things that don't entail me spending a lot of money. Yes, I want to go to more Indians' games, but if I can't afford it, oh well. Yes, I want more Xbox games, but oh well. Yes, I want to do a lot of things, but if I can't, oh well.

I need to be more fiscally responsible than I've been. I've done well in that I haven't been overdrawn in my checking account. I've goofed on my savings once, but that was something that was accidental. It was immediately fixed and hasn't happened again.

This year I need to get things straight. It might be the last chance that I have.

Comments