Monday, June 27, 2005

Bay area cultural experience #372

Saturday after working a 5 hour shift at the BRO, I got a nice afternoon to snooze in the chair. W called and said we were invited to a friends retirement party, I need to jump on the train to meet her at the airport. I needed to catch a train long after the bus stops running, so I took my first bike ride to the Bart station. It went pretty well, the air is still cool enough that a bike ride is not a terribly sweat inducing activity. (In FL, breathing this time of year outdoors is a sweat inducing activity) I arrived at the airport just as W was getting out of work, and we took off and went to scott's house. He has a cool make-shift wine cellar in his basement,the concept of which I'm still trying to get used to. (Never having owned a basement before) Scott took us into the city where we went to a cool place called Cafe do Brasil. I can honestly say I'd never had Brazilian food before, but I definitely enjoyed. I also had my first caipirinha, a drink I would definitely have again someday. But even better than the food and drink was the authentic Brazilian music, which is mostly percussive and voice, with very catchy rhythms. Add Brazil to my list of places to visit someday. Sunday was another day another dollar, working the morning shift at the BRO. I put in 8 hours, and W picked me up so she could do a little shopping. I visited a Panda Express for the first time and although the food lacked the spiciness or depth of flavor I would have liked in traditional Chinese food, they really did a good job keeping the veggies at an acceptable crispness level. I have been craving some sweet and sour pork for a while now. ( I ate it almost every Friday at Auburn) Speaking of Auburn I heard from my old room mate Dale yesterday. He and the wife are headed to Vegas next week. If he had warned me I would have tried to make it there, but I'm still shooting to make it out is direction for the Auburn vs. Georgia Tech game. I was only supposed to have Monday and Wednesday nights off this week, but since I negotiated for Friday night off, I actually expect to be fairly rested throughout the week. I may not know what to do with all that free time.

Saturday, June 25, 2005

one more post, since I do pretend to have a life outside of work

Today the nice folks at the BRO managed to schedule me from only 8 to 12:15, so i get a whole afternoon to nap and catch up on things. When they realized their error they asked if I could stay late. I gave them until 1, but am taking the rest of the afternoon for myself. Last week W and I managed to have a Saturday evening off at the same time so we actually went on a date. I drove and opened doors as is customary, and even paid thanks to my newfound personal wealth. It turns out that if you spend 2 weeks doing nothing but working and sleeping you get some cash to jingle around in your pockets. So we went out to our favorite sushi place and just enjoyed some unrushed quality time together. I have been at the MOHP for 3 weeks now and still hadn't gotten my pre-employment drug screening taken care of, so we decided we were going to make it happen last week. (The MOHP requires it, but decided I could start working before I took it and could stay as long as i passed) I had been to one place that advertised it did the tests on saturday last week, only to find it closed. I was starting to panic about getting fired for attempting to duck the test. So wednesday W and I ended up having to go all the way to mountain view to get it done. I am relieved that I won't get canned for that, and the way things are going they might keep me on board up to 9 months at this point. I'm phasing myself out a little at the BRO so that I actually get some sleep at night. I am getting a really quality experience at the MOHP, so i'd like to hold on to it as long as possible. There are a lot of things I love about it too. Its in a great spot in downtown oakland, Its close to great food in Chinatown, There is a Farmers market every Friday only 2 blocks away. My commute is great: I can walk out of the house and be sitting at my desk an hour later. Friday was the fillipino-american festival right where I usually eat lunch, so I watched that for a few minutes, which reminds me that my 4 favorite fillipine-americans are coming to town next week. My friend Luerne (and family) are dropping into SF this weekend and I've already scored a little time off to play. A big congratulations goes out to My cousin Scott and his wife Heather, who this week proudly announced the birth of Ryan Scott Butler. They have officially broken the seal on children for this generation of my mom's family. At this point I'm the 3rd oldest, and therefore "next in line" for marriage, and 2nd in line for kids. Nothing like a little pressure. I had a brainstorm about a better way to blog today, take a look on monday and I'll take a poll to see if its actually worth doing.

How did all these cob webs get in here?

Yes I know, It has been far too long since I last posted. Lets take a look at what a day in the life of Jason looks like.
4:30 a.m. the alarm goes off for the first time. I generally snooze until 4:45
4:45 a.m. Face the reality that I really do need to get up, shower and dress.
5:30 Bag check: Keys, phone, BRO appoved shirt, 2 lunches (one for each job) BRO name tag, MOHP name tag, Bart ticket, and 1.50 for bus.
5:35 Walk (run if later) to bus stop
5:47 Bus arrives
6:01 a.m. Arrive Bart Station
6:08 a.m. Get on Train heading north
6:21 a.m. Train arrives at station in Oakland
6:23 a.m. Pay 1.25 for bagel and if late in the week buy coffee
6:30 a.m. Arrive at office begin work
11:30 a.m. Lunch I usually walk down to the steps of oakland city hall where there is a litle ampitheater at which people gather for lunch (pictures next week)
12:15 p.m. back to work
2:00 p.m. Leave MOHP
2:14 p.m. Board train headed south
2:31 p.m. Arrive Bart station
3:00 p.m. Begin work at BRO
7:30 p.m. Dinner time
10:30 p.m. Finish work at BRO wait for W to leave work
11:00 p.m. W leaves work calls me on phone, this is usually our longest sustained discussion of the day. Somehow we're back to having a phone relationship.
11:30 p.m W arrives at BRO
11:45 p.m Arrive home. briefly check email, phone messages, pack up lunch for tomorrow, iron if necessary and get in bed before 12
12:00 a.m. crash and burn the alarm is only four and a half hours away
I'm open to suggestion about where to fit in a post there.

Monday, June 13, 2005

only 6 hours of work? what gives?

Today I'm enjoying a rare relaxing evening. Yes, I did walk out the door at 6:00 a.m., but I get the rest of the evening to spend curled up in the living room with my old slacking partner Calvin the dog. He's in town until tomorrow. Things are starting to look up at the MOHP. I came in trying so hard to impress that I kind of wound myself up too tightly. But just in the nick of time, with the other temp who trained me out of town, I figured out how to produce a report that had baffled me for three days. The process involves SAP, Access, and Excel, and takes about 2 hours for someone who knows what they're doing, so i ended up spending most of the today and a good portion of friday afternoon on it. Now that I've got it down, i get to do it all over again tomorrow. My immediate supervisor seems to think pretty highly of me and has already admitted that she hopes I stick around since my personality seems like a good fit. Apparently regular turnover in the 2 temp positions is to be expected, but she's rooting for me to stick around a bit. That of course sounds like a great plan to me. So now I can add to my resume production of daily reports using the above mentioned programs, which makes it sparkle just a little bit more. I really like the feel of working there, I take the train into the heart of a big city from the suburbs, work in a tall building (24 stories) and return to a tail wagging dog who just wants me to pay attention to him. I'd say I have it pretty good right now. Things are still good at the BRO too, except that the last bus from there leaves at 7, which leaves me to either take the 3 mile walk from bart, or to wait until W makes her way back across the bay which usually doesn't happen until an hour after I'm done working. But if I continue to have this many jobs I won't be that far away from some meager transportation of my own. Now back to resting.

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

This is what I've been waiting a year for?

Tuesday was supposed to be my first of three whole days off, but that changed real fast. On monday my rep from the newest temp agency called and asked if I could come in Wednesday. Wanting to triple my salary sooner rather than later, I of course said yes I could. Unfortunately W and I had planned to make a day of it, since we didn't know when our next day off together would be, so we had to scrap that plan. Tuesday morning at 8:45 the phone rings, and its the BRO asking if I can come in at 10:00 I said yes, wanting to acquire the cash while I had the day off. My day was highlighted by someone filling out a survey card saying that "Jason is handsome, courteous and efficient" You should have seen the cheezy grin on my face the rest of the day. I worked my first 8 hour shift there and was exhausted but still found myself awake at 2:00 a.m. For most of the past 6 months that would have been no big deal. But today was my first day at the MOHP. I felt like I was dragging about for the better part of the afternoon, and will have to work hard to continue to impress there. Most of the people that I talk to think that the person with whom I interviewed typically under-estimates the amount of time temps will be needed, so I should expect a pretty lengthy stay as long as I'm happy and cooperative. (or as I have been described, handsome, courteus and efficient) I'm learning the job from a guy who's going on vacation next week, so I have to have it down by the end of the week before he leaves. He's another new MBA looking to get started, and the next supervisor up from him is another MBA. So there are a lot of us running around there, and at least I'll get an MBA sympathy vote if I ever am fighting for my continued work there.
So I'm really really tired now, since I've now been working for 7 days straight. I'm not due for a day off any time soon, so I have to throw myself into better sleeping habits soon or face consequences I'm not willing to put in print here. I woke up to a dark and stormy morning today, which combined with some mechanical trouble down the track left the trains running late and absolutely jammed. My building is right above the BART station which means that I didn't even have to go out in the rain to get from the Train to the office, not too shabby. W was gracious enough to give me a ride to Bart at 7:00 a.m. despite the fact that she had the day off.
I get one more evening off, and then friday comes the big 14 hour day. Wish me luck!

Saturday, June 04, 2005

This really is a nightmare

Yesterday I was scheduled to only spend 4 hours at the BRO, but I am apparently doing a good enough job that I got asked to stay an extra three and change. I got home exhausted but spent a big portion of the night dreaming about sending people through my checkout lane. It was not a good nights sleep. I think its time for my first ever blog rant:
/begin rant
  1. If you shop at my store and you come in my lane, take the stuff out of your cart and put it on the belt, that's what its there for. I don't have time for you to take things out of your cart one at a time while you watch your total climb steadily.
  2. If you are paying with credit or debit, the card reader is sitting right there. Don't wait until you see the total before beginning to dig for your wallet.
  3. If you just had your check cashed and have an enormous wad of bills, start unraveling them before I'm finished with your items. No one else wants to watch you spread your money out all over the counter.
  4. I know, you don't want to carry around your change. Well, do us all a favor and don't stand here for ten minutes trying to count out 97 cents. We all have better things to do.
  5. There are scanners every 15 feet in the store if you can't figure out how much something costs, take it to one of them, don't waste my time with it.
  6. Be decisive. If you think you don't want something put it back where it came from don't bring it to me and admit that you're flaky.
  7. Why do I care about these things? From the moment I scan your first item I'm being timed. The computer knows the number of items and the relative difficulty of packaging them, and calculates when the transaction could be finished. It does not stop ticking until the transaction is completed. So if I bust my butt bagging your stuff but you spend 5 minutes fumbling with pennies or the credit card machine, guess who gets blamed. That's right, the cashier sitting on his MBA suddenly looks lazy and uninitiated.
/end rant

Thank you, now that I've gotten that out of my system I feel much better. On a much more positive note, my real job at the MOHP should start on Thursday. I can't wait to have a nice relaxing sit down at a computer job. Yes I know, I will probably eat those words some day, but what fun is life if you don't poke fate with a pointy stick every now and then.

Thursday, June 02, 2005

My cup runneth over

So thats how this is going to work? The minute I sign up at the Big Retail Outlet (BRO) the phone starts ringing. One of those phone calls has come through and I am officially fielding an offer from the Manufacturer Of Household Products. That means on many days I will be arriving at the MOHP at 7:00 a.m. working until 2 and then scrambling off to the BRO to work from 3:00 to 10:00. The best part part is they are 20 minutes apart on BART, and both within easy walking distance of a station. Dress at the MOHP is business casual so I will require a minor wardrobe change during my free hour, but other than that it sounds like a quick way to make up for not working for 5 months. When I talked to the guy at the temp agency he laughed when I told him the assignment might only last 3 weeks, saying it is never that short and they always need someone to do this job. So the threat of it only lasting 3 weeks may not stand up but either way I pick up a qulity experience. Its my last day home alone before W returns from Vegas. Its a good thing we live at the same place or we might not see each other very much for a while. She intends to come back and pick up some hours and I have (in my best jamaican accent) "Two Jobs Mon". That's right, I'm no longer a Lazy good for nothin'. To make this deal even more interesting I might even try to pick back up the personal training class teaching. I did spend $2oo on study guides for it, I should at least work enough to get that back. And yes you have done the math correctly, that would give me "Tree Jobs mon!"

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

There's always a catch

I barely managed to get out of bed on time for my interview this morning, catching the last train to San Francisco that would give me more than one minute to find my destination. I walked in right at 9:30 breathing a little hard and went through my interview. I apparently presented myself well enough and managed the Access and Excel tests well enough that I was passed on to a manager at the big household products manufacturer for a phone interview. The time was set for 4 O'clock so I waited around the house anxiously until then. At 4:30 the call finally arrived and I think I presented myself well again. The job is only supposed to last for 3 weeks which would mean burning my bridges at the Big Retail Outlet (BRO)would be a bad idea. So we may have worked it out where I could work from 7 to 2 and then head off to the BRO. I should know something by Friday. Tomorrow its off to my full time job or at least 4 hours worth of it.