Grasping at Straws

I ordered a doll lunch set. I can play with it tomorrow.

An hour before I was ready to leave. I got a really strange phone call. It was some guy named Orlando telling me to interview for the same chain I work at but in a different city. I applied to both locations the one I work at now and that one. He wanted me to come in for a shift. I said I’m already scheduled in a hour from now at the one I work at. I never been legitimately poached before. I don’t count that girl trying to get me to work at the trampoline place. Cause there was no way I was going to work at a place that smelled like feet.

I tell the manager what happened with the strange phone call. He tells me he knows who Orlando is and recognizes the number he called from. “He said they are not in our league.” Wait who is out of what league? Them or us? I’m confused by this. That sounds like something from a Seinfeld episode.

When I get there I see a bunch of young junior high age kids. They looked pretty young and now that I’m old everybody looks young to me except for old people. There is like 8 of them. They keep going in and out and making our door alert tell us there are customers. Two of them had cool shirts. One kids had a Hot Stuff shirt. Hot Stuff? Do kids even know who he is? The girl had a South Park shirt with the main 4 kids and Butters on it. They brought a bike in, charged their phones and spilled a cup of Hi-C. Why is the one we sell still bright red?

Then they were trying to blame that I was $40 short. They should not have let me have my break first. Cause I texted the manager there who was not there. Just to cover my ass. And if I was going to get fired over this I would not mind. Ok I’d be mad, but not too mad.

Their dishes are hard, but not as hard as the deli. If they give me time to wash them.

10 Movies from 2001 Volume 8

Back to the Secret Garden

Winning London

Rock Star

Serendipity

Lady and the Tramp II Scamp’s Adventure

Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase

Monster’s Ball

Y Tu Mamá También

On The Line

Zoolander

Mayo Boob

When I was getting ready for work I remembered what the guy told me during the interview that he was fun guy. I thought “Oh no! I’m working for Micheal Scott.”

The title sounds like a reddit user name or some kind of adult video.

When I got the contract it said I’m on probation for 90 days and that I will only get paid $13.50. Is this even legal? (in my state) I’m still trying to find out. I spent 10 minutes filling out forms. Will it be like the deli? Remember I only made for 70 something days.

I was on the floor making stuff. Then a bunch of orders came for sandwiches came. I had to put mayo on the bread. There is not a lot of space in there. The place is small like the pizza restaurant was. When I bent over the mayo got all over my right boob. At least they bothered to rain me and show me where stuff was.

I had a mishap with the fries I forgot to set the timer. I hope those fries were cooked. Why did they act like it was so complicated at the deli? Maybe because they had an old broken fryer that was 9 years old? (at the time I worked there) It would be 12 years old now if they still use it. They had no timers either they had to use a separate timer. Miss “A” Game never bothered to show me how to do it. Cause I know you still work there with all that swagger. She’s probably head of the department by now. The fryer and the baskets were so much more cleaner than they were at the deli. I hope potato guy comes here I’d love to tell him off.

When I got a break I ate a sandwich I tried to eat a sandwich with fries in under 10 minutes. Should not have tried that. I was feeling that for the rest of the night. The food there is really salty. Perhaps I should not have ordered an item with bacon? The food is ok there. Not bad but not good either. Not worth the full price, but with the employee discount it was ok. The portions are skimpy and they put a lot of fillers in the sandwich. The fries are good but not worth the price.

Nobody I worked with has been there long. The manager and the other co worker there. That is a big red flag. Of course my dad would tell me to ignore it because I have a job.

The job didn’t seem too hard. Nobody was yelling at me or told me I suck. So that was good. First time that happened during my first day. And my coworkers were not constantly on their cell phones. Or if they did they hid it well. Nobody claimed to be a personal trainer.

10 Movies from 1991 Volume 8

Violation of Trust

Murder in New Hampshire: The Pamela Smart Story

Martial Law

In a Strangers Hand

Sins of the Mother

Scanners II: The New Order

A Woman Named Jackie

The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw

Marilyn and Me

My Heroes have Always Been Cowboys

Starting from Scratch

I had a job interview on Wednesday that was really bad. The place was hard to find. And the person conducting it was hard to find. When he read my resume he was frowning. I’ve been to enough bad interviews to know when the person interviewing you frowns you get the hell out of there. He got mad I could not make sauces from scratch. My dad got mad because I didn’t beg them to train me. This place needs to write their ads better. Later I checked the ad. It was me. Stupid career website algorithms.

My dad insisted that I cash the check and the brand of bank it was issued by. Why do banks charge so much to cash checks? They were gonna charge me $8. I got in trouble with my dad for that. I was happy it didn’t bounce. I didn’t trust that place.

I told my dad it’s not the old days anymore you can go down to the corner store and stock milk for the owner pops for .25¢ an hour, and that I can’t make people hire me.

This interview was not that much better. The guy was trying really hard to sell me on the job. I wasn’t having it. Telling me about how you can advance, but working there is hard. This happened to me before at a Del Taco interview. The employees were rude to me and all the girl could talk about was advancement. The guy spent most of the interview talking about himself. About how he is so extroverted and doesn’t set you up for failure and how fun the place is. I said I interviewed for this place a few years ago. I had to study. He tried hard to convince me that the place is under new management. It seemed like high pressure tactics to sell cheese steaks. That they have charts and such. That happened at a Brookstone interview and then the stores closed down like a year later. The guy said it was slow there. A lot of the places in the area just don’t sell food anymore. Nobody’s buying anything. I thought I bombed the interview and left me sour.

The guy told me I’d hear back by tomorrow. I didn’t hear anything all day and figured I bombed the interview, and I would be ghosted. Like usual. I get a call at around 4:30 while idly crafting and watching Wings. I got the job. Oh no! That interview went badly in my opinion. Plus I have a job interview schedule for tomorrow. I think I can make both. He told me he needed my information. I guess because this is a big company. Well it’s not a pair of siblings running an independent restaurant.

10 TV Shows from 2001 Volume 8

Santa Baby! animated special

Love Story J-drama in Japan

Koi ga Shitai x3 J-drama in Japan

Oswald

Action League Now!

The Fighting Fitzgeralds

Elimidate

I wrote an essay about this show for a college class.

Emeril NBC series

Doc (Pax series)

Famous for being Miley Cyrus on screen acting debut.

Go Fish

Cornell Notes Rule!

When I was a senior in high school all or most of the teachers went to a conference to learn this great, new, innovative way of note taking called Cornell notes. (They aren’t new they were invented in the 1950s) They were just fawning over this style of notes with a passion. The teachers never explained why this style of They made you use this note taking format for every single fucking class. I hated it. It wasted paper. It would take me 3-4 pages I could write down on 1 page or less of regular notes. It was hard to write things down in the little column. Why is this format best for all classes? Why is it best for all students?

I didn’t want to bother learning a note style I was going to be forced to use one year before I left for college. After I did leave for college they didn’t care about what kind of notes I took or even if I took any at all. I’m a write everything down person. My notes are not neat or cute or Instagram worthy.

Sometimes the notes were even graded to see if we were taking them “properly”. Why do notes need to be graded? Aren’t notes for you?

There are a lot of programs like Avid that force the student to use this. And that is really sad.

According to my teachers over the years these are the things that make you smarter; listening to classical music, wearing school uniforms, and Cornell notes. There might be a few others I missed. If all these things supposedly make you smarter why is I not more smarterer?

10 TV Shows from 1991 Volume 8

Shop til you Drop

Street Justice

Emergency Call (1991 show)

Mr. Bogus

Sweating Bullets

Silk Stalkings

Studs

Remember when Family Matters parodied this show?

Trialwatch

Way Cool

KTLA Morning News

When this premiered they stopped showing morning cartoons. KTTV followed a few years later.

Just Got Paid

Yesterday I got a text late at night around 11PM from my former boss from the restaurant with the random junk in it. That I can finally pick up my pay check. I had to come after 7PM.

My dad takes me there after 7. I walk in; the place is still bad. They have been getting bad reviews since I left. Not that I think was such a great employee that the place went to shit after I left. It was already shit and got shittier. Another person even pointed out the random junk in the corner in their review. It was also pointed out that the place frequently closes because of “maintenance issues”. It did the day I interviewed and has since. Floors still sticky and worn out. Trash just left by the counter. Just one customer inside by himself. Drive thru backed up as usual. There was less random junk in the corner so I guess that was an improvement? 🤷 I took some pics for my parents. I was pretending to be checking the Raider game in my phone but really taking pics.

He gave me a check. The amount seemed about right. At the rate they were paying not including tips or minus tax I would have netted approximately $104. I don’t trust this guy is it even good?

Then he asked me why I walked out in the middle of a shift. I explained what happened. I said there was too much chaos. There was no way I was going to hold my cool in that situation. He asked if it was his sister. I said yes. I think he knows she is a problem and scaring off employees. Nothing this guy could have said would smooth it over. Nothing. It seemed like he wanted me to come back. Was he really that desperate? Me? A person who walked out in the middle of a shift? As long as his sister works there I won’t work there. After I saw the way things were prepped I’d never eat there either. My dad wanted to know if I used the word “bitch” to describe his sister. That would be unprofessional even though I would totally use it here in this blog or in a non work setting.

Nobody has ever asked me a question like that before. At the deli after I quit they talked down to me like a naughty pet. I don’t count the pizza restaurant since I had to leave because of my dad’s injury. At the rice bowl place when I said I quit the manager just sounded like a disappointed parent. I’m still not exactly sure what kind of a worker he wanted at the rice bowl place. 🤔

Honestly I give this place 2 years or less.

I was sort of glad I did not have to sell pizzas to angry Raiders fans. I though if I do try another location for the pizza restaurant. I should wait until after Halloween. It was pretty terrible there and we ran out of dough.

I can’t believe the Raiders pulled off a win in overtime even with that almost touch down at the end. The problem I see with the Raiders is why don’t they protect their quarterback? He gets tackled a lot. I’m no football analyst, but I can see this. Their whole division AFC West is undefeated in week 1.

This Isn’t a Birthday Party

In 1991 my second cousin was born. He was the oldest of the new generation. I was the last in the string of grandchildren.

They were throwing a baby shower for him at my great aunt’s house. My mom didn’t want me to come because I was young, bad and would start trouble. I was 7 at the time going into 2nd grade. My dad had one job. Keep me occupied and away from the place. First he took me to McDonald’s. I got a Rescue Rangers Dale toy and I was happy he was one I didn’t have. Then he took me to a Chuck E. Cheese for a while. After the trip to the Chuck E. Cheese he decided to take me to the baby shower to surprise my mom and to see my relatives there. When we got there my mom was pissed. I was not supposed to be there. They wanted to see me and let me stay.

The thing was that my aunt and great aunt lived directly across the street from each other. On a busy street. For some reason they kept having me cross the street back and fourth to their houses. I’d go to one house and they’d call me back to the other. It was very confusing. As I was leaving one house to go to the other they called me back while I was attempting to cross the street. I was not paying attention looking over to somebody calling for me at the porch. I don’t remember exactly what happened. It all happened so fast. I remember making eye contact with the driver, panicking and then hitting the hot asphalt. I had some scrapes and burns. I was more upset about ruining my cool new outfit than getting hit by the car. It was a really nice one piece thing with long shorts and faux skirt over them in a burgundy color. Very trendy for fall 1991.

My great aunt called 911, and the fire department came. The firefighter saw a cake on the table and thought she was having a birthday party, but we said it was a baby shower. They said I didn’t have any broken bones.

When we were home my dad come back with food and some Neosporin. I got another Happy Meal this time a different one a 101 Dalmatians one. I got the Lucky toy. I still have it as a reminder of the the day I got hit by a car. (pic not of my toy)

I like to joke around with my cousin and tell him that I ruined his baby shower by getting hit by a car.

One of the few times they actually liked my story in that class. I was too young for their taste because I didn’t write about WWII or the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Two world events I was not even alive for. They made me think I was too young to be a writer, but now I don’t care because I’m old.