Well, after much agitation, and inner turmoil, I did it. I decided to post for the new position at the Gas ‘n Sip. I don’t know if anything will come of it – the wheels move glacially here – but I feel better knowing that I have stopped feeling the victim, and taken the step to doing something about it.
I also took the step of letting my manager know what I’ve done. I don’t know what I expected, but what I got was “Ok. Thanks for letting me know.”
Either way, I do know that the disparity of my situation was making me short-tempered and resentful and preventing me from doing my best work. And that is not okay. I am better than that. My employer deserves better from me. And hopefully, this step will help me to do better.
I’ll keep you posted.
I have been seeing this little guy a lot lately. And it’s sort of how I’m feeling. I can’t seem to shake it.
Why?
Well, hmmm. Let’s see. We at the Gas ‘n Sip were told what our “annual increase” was. Hooray!, right? Yeah. No. Coupled with the increased cost of health benefits, I’m actually seeing $30 LESS in my paycheck. Awesome.
Last week, my debit card was compromised, so the bank closed it out and gave me a new one. Except they set it up incorrectly, so when I was at Whole Foods buying groceries on Saturday, my card was “not authorized”. Fantastic.
Also last week, one of my co-workers at the Gas ‘n Sip challenged me on a conference call. I’m okay with the challenge, but he wouldn’t let it go when I asked to take it offline and I ended up looking very incompetent. Brilliant.
Another Gas ‘n Sip example: apparently, they like their employees to post internally for different jobs. (I don’t know why. Asking becomes exhausting.) So, for kicks, I went to the job site and found another Slurpee Manager job, in a different department, in the same building. To be clear, it would be doing THE EXACT SAME JOB, for a different line of business. And what’s my problem, you ask? I’m glad you asked. The pay grade is a whole pay grade higher than I am currently at. For the same job. More money. Same. More. I asked my manager what I needed to do to be brought up to parity with my peers. “We’ll have to work on that.” D’ya think??
Then there is the news. I have posted before that I don’t watch the news because it is SO depressing. I get it – “if it bleeds, it leads”, or some such thing. And in the age of 24 hour news coverage, they need to fill the time with SOMETHING. But let’s just peek as a few of the more recent headlines, shall we? These are from CNN:
- Lance Armstrong doping
- France sending more troops
- Armed school guards
- Gang rape in India
- Teachers in child sex sting
- Hundreds at VA possibly exposed to HIV
- 10-year-old boy murdered by neo-Nazi dad
And it just goes on. Is it any wonder I look at pictures of cute kittens online?
So that’s what’s up with me.
What do you think? Should I apply for that other job, just for the pay bump?
(This is the 2nd time I’m writing this. The first one is out in the ether, even though I hit “publish”. So if that one does show up, this one won’t be any better.)
Ever since my unfortunate run in with chicken at Thanksgiving (*shudder), I still cannot bring myself to eat it. There are times when just looking at chicken can bring me back to that day and put me off whatever I am eating now. In fact, I am experiencing what I call “chicken-gross-out-overflow” at times – I can’t enjoy the steak (or whatever) I am eating.
So, back in my early 20s, I claimed to be a vegetarian. I say “claimed” because I didn’t really do it right – I didn’t take the time to really learn how to eat, or how to get my protein, etc. I missed bacon and I loved the smell of burgers on an outside grill. So after a few years, I went back to being a meat eater and never looked back.
Now, though, I’m thinking about cutting out meat again. Except bacon. I can’t seem to give up bacon. It’s just so yummy. And before you say – there’s turkey bacon, or fake-on, or whatever, NO. If it’s not real bacon, then it shouldn’t even have bacon in the name.
So is there such a thing? A vaconitarian? A flexitarian?
I know I can’t go vegan. I love leather. And cheese. And being in Maine, I don’t want to give up lobster. I don’t eat it very often, but I like knowing that I can. There is a pescitarian – a vegetarian who eats seafood. (I’m sure I’ve spelled that incorrectly, but spell check wants me to change it to “nonsectarian”. *snort)
So, I am leaning toward a pescitarian who eats bacon. A flexitarian. That’s what I’m trademarking.
When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing.
~ENRIQUE JARDIEL PONCELA
After I hit “publish” on yesterday’s post, this quote came up. Perhaps I am misunderstanding the point of it, but I don’t think this quote holds true.
Anyone who has read anything I’ve written can tell that it can be read without effort, and I can assure you that great effort did not go into it.
On a larger scale, anything by Danielle Steel, for example – read without effort. And so formulaic that you KNOW it was not great effort to write. On the other hand, anything Toni Morrison has written? Very likely, there was much effort in writing and that writing takes A LOT of effort to read.
So, what am I missing? What is Enrique Jardiel Moncela trying to say that I am missing?
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