Home again, home again.

May 21, 2003

Well, as you can plainly see I made it home all right. I’m actually going to hold off on telling you about my cross-country trip for a bit, and though I wrote for this page while I was on the road, I’d rather post them all at once, and I just don’t have the time to do it right now. I’ll begin with this week, instead.

I got back Sunday afternoon, and the great unpacking began. I moved all the boxes out of the car and into the garage, and then took ones I knew I needed upstairs and into my room…and then slowly took the rest up after basically dumping things on the floor. That’s about as far as I got that night. Monday I really dug in, and then my friend Meagan who also went to Beloit gave me a call since she was in town, and we got together for lunch, then went up to the Zoo for a couple of hours. It was really nice seeing someone from Beloit out here, as that doesn’t happen too often unless it’s prearranged. Well, Meagan and I had planned on getting together on Monday, but she’s someone I normally don’t see since she’s from Chicago. The Zoo was great. I haven’t been up there in a couple of years, but it’s always enjoyable to see the animals that you’re not used to seeing. You get so used to seeing humans, or even dogs and cats, and thought you remember what the animals look like, seeing them in person is totally different. Meagan and I just stood and stared at one of the elephants up close for awhile, marvelling at its size and wonder. I mean, those are incredible creatures. So huge, so graceful, even for their size. After the Zoo, I took her back to her cousin’s house, and there I left her for the night after hanging out for awhile. Back to the great mess.

Yesterday I had plans to continue knocking down the pile of stuff in my room, but first I needed to go grocery shopping. While I was out, I ran a couple of errands, though. The first was down to the local shipping outlet to mail off my battery charger that I use for my digital camera, as it started giving me trouble the last couple of days of the trip and refused to charge my batteries, meaning I don’t have many pictures from the end of the trip at all. Thats OK, though, since Idaho and Oregon are fairly familiar to me, and I can always get digital copies of my Dad’s pictures if I so desire. I also stopped by to see Mike Luce, who used to work at Papa Murphy’s back in the day, but he wasn’t working then. I’ll catch him another time, I guess. My next stop was up to Papa Murphy’s, since Doug, the man who owns the store and who hired me, was up there. I talked with him for about 30-45 minutes, just gabbing about what I’ve been up to, how business is, where I should look for jobs, that sort of thing. I also met the new manager, who is much nicer than the one who was there last summer when I was working. For those that remember, I really disliked that man. I don’t know what it was (well, I could go read my old web stuff…OK, now I remember…had to do with my timecard and my manager cutting back on my hours because he was “disappointed” in me instead of talking to me about whatever problem he had with me), but he really ticked me off. Apparently I got under his skin, too, but since he never talked with me about it, I had no idea what to do. Anyhow, right after I left, no more than three weeks, Doug, the owner, got into an argument with him about cleaning up his act around the store–the manager was rarely shaven, needed a haircut, wore clothes that needed sewing, etc–and the manger walked off the job after burning the bridge. Doug got this new guy in, and he’s been great, Doug says. I was introduced to him and he offered me a job on the spot–but not as a regular employee. He’s actually trying to get into ownership of a store, which means that he’ll be leaving eventually, and he wanted to have me start training as the replacement manager. That’s actually fairly good money, and since I have both experience and a college education, I could have a fairly decent job. Now, that being said, here are my qualms. Firstly, I feel bad because there’s a guy that’s already assistant manager, and I would think that he would be next in line for the job. If I were in Tony’s (the manager now) place, I wouldn’t promote this guy to full manager, which is why I think he asked me, but then why would he even give this guy that title in the first place? Secondly, I don’t really want to go back there all that much. I’m tired of that. It would give me managerial experience which looks great on a resume, but man, I’ve worked there for nearly three years already, and I’d prefer to work a job where I don’t have to deal with an endless stream of the public day after day. I told him I’d think about it.

End of story, right? Wrong. An hour or so later after I’m home, he calls me up and asks if I’d like to come in and work for a few hours, under the table. Someone quit on him last week with no notice, and he was short-handed today, so he just needed someone to work for a few hours until the assistant manager could come in and close. Well, I begrudgingly agreed, if not just for the sake of needing money. So I went to work from 3:30 until 7:30, which was an easy shift, and again there were new things to get used to, but it was a cakewalk and I think the girl who was also in there appreciated some experienced help.

And that’s how I spent my Tuesday. This is why I haven’t had time to get all my web page stuff I wrote (as well as my 170 pictures) sorted through to post, but I’ll do that soon enough. I don’t think I’ll do them on the main page, anyhow, but their own section of the website like how I do for picture sets. I have a dentist’s appointment today for the first time in a year, so this should be interesting. I also have to go back to Papa Murphy’s to pick up my pay from yesterday, and then I’m back here working on my room some more. Sounds like a fun day. JUst wanted to let you all know that I’m back and doing OK. Have a great day, and I’ll check in again later this week.

Posted in Beloit, Geekery, General