it was okay. very unorganized. i still dont even know what my hours are.
before i went in, i had to stop at 19th and market to pick up materials for my drug test. i had to be there at eight. i was outta there by 8:10.
from there, i walked on down to 9th and chestnut to get the day's training started. i have no idea how long we (the new hires from the agency) are supposed to stay in training. today we were in it for all of 15 minutes. and that's after i sat and waited for an hour for the instructor and the training to being. finally someone came in, but they weren't alerted to the fact that at least two of the people in the room (myself and a guy named franklin, who i initially saw when i went to the staffing agency's office to be tested). franklin is... interesting. he shall be described and discussed a little later on.
so anyway, franklin and i knew absolutely positively nothing about anything the instructor stand-in was talking about. i soon caught on tho; i mean the stuff isnt that hard (i'm a claims adjuster, by the way. aren't u jealous? :/ ).. but she's up there ramblin on and on about ITS and MHS and IBC's and 123's and who knows what else. franklin and i were the only completely new hires; everybody else in the room has been working with the company for awhile already.
so not long after we told the lady that our canvases were completely blank, the actual instructor finally came in. we were pulled out and sent to the instructor's desk so that she can give us our fundamental necessities (photo ID, computer login IDs, etc.). we got none of that. instead, she put us on some lady named miranda's team, introduced us to a lady named mary, and told us to go to lunch and see mary once we got back so that we could get our ID's and then be paired with someone to shadow for the day. or, we had the option of leaving and going on home after we got our ID's and stuff. franklin and i decided to stay for at least an hr to show the initiative and interest that we're pretending to have.
now i shld say, we were told this at 12:15. lunch is at 1 pm. ends at 2. so we basically got a 2 hr lunch today. franklin treated me to a nice little buffet spot near the office where we ate and waxed poetic and philosophical and all that stuff.
so. about franklin. franklin is a salesman. he's got the personality for it; very outgoing and slightly intrusive in the way that salesmen must be to get your attention, even when its clear that you dont want to give it to them. he makes conversation with everybody. *everybody.* it's a little annoying, but hey, that's what u need to do to network, and that's all he talks about. network network network.
he's harmless enough, though. i guess. i kinda like talkin to him for pretty selfish reasons; he hangs on nearly everyword i say and looks at me like im thee smartest person on god's green earth. we talked about lots of things over lunch (i mean hell, we had two hours)--my time in kentucky, black nationalism, feminism. i felt like a supergenius. and it felt cool to have that attention paid to me. he's kinda... out there though. a couple times he went off on some tangents about numerology, astrology, the 'numerous higher beings' there cld be up there in the sky, and how he heard that jews are the real devils because they own everything.
*blink*
..i didnt touch those.
so yeah, he's type odd and slightly cornballish, but he's young and it feels good to have somebody there around my age, and plus i feel like i already have a colleague there, which is good.
im a bit worried though. he invited me to lunch, 'respectfully,' because i'd told him i have a boyfriend, but at the little buffet place we went to, the lady tried to ring my meal up separately (note: i initially insisted on paying, but he refused harder than i protested, so i gave in). i said to her, 'oh, we're together.' and he tapped me on my shoulder and said, 'dang, i like the sound of that!' then said he was just playing, of course. then at the table he did the whole 'take off your glasses/wow/what color are your eyes?' thing, which i found corny b/c they're clearly doo doo brown. its hard to mistake doo doo brown for anything else.
so im keepin franklin at a 'respectable' distance as any 'respectable' girl would.
we got back at 2 and went to mary's desk for our logins, as instructed. but, for some reason, she sent us straight to the desks of the people we were to shadow. so, no logins. no id's. nunna that. im very unimpressed with how they integrate new employees into the company thus far, but whatever. im gettin paid well; i can put up with 2 hr lunches and leavin early.
mary put me with a woman named starr. starr is an older lady, kind of grandmotherly looking. gray headed and lazy eyed. dark skin, bright white hairs sprouting for her second chin. not too attractive, but she was really nice and patient with me. i'd managed to make it through a whole hour and a half before i decided to go ahead and get up and leave; then we started chit chatting, and she started asking me questions about myself when i told her where i was from. one of the last questions she asked me was:
'are you saved?'
.... i HATE being asked that question. i hate it because the ppl who ask it, in my experience, tend to be fundamental fanatics who consider it their personal godly mission to save u if u tell them u havent been saved. this happened to brittany and i as we were sitting on the sign on one occasion. when she asked me that question i hestiated in answering and flashed back to that moment; i then decided that i really dont want to worry about being missioned to everytime i come in to work, so in order to keep things as simple as possible for me/her (cause i wldnt want her to waste her time), i smiled and nodded my head yes.
she laughed. 'ha ha! now how did i know that?'
i have no idea why she thought that.
but, i went along with it and moved to gather my things, but she said to me, 'there are some more of us here,' and then started introducing me to people as she picked them out and pointed at them. 'this is tracy; she's a bible thumper too.'
.... dude.
yeah. it'll be interesting to see how that plays out.
and i think she's gonna try and hook me up with her son; she kept telling me about him, showin me pictures of him. 'this is my boo boo! he'll be 23 his birthday.. oh, his birthday's in april too! isn't he cute?'
yo, dude is NOT cute. like.. his head is square shaped and his hairline like almost touches his eyebrows. maybe i'll tell her im dating a minister. i already lied once, right? what harm cld it do?
well i guess technically i didnt lie. i have been baptized. do that count? no? oh.
so anyway, i left at 3:30 and came on home. when i got here, i opened up my email. rewind to about a week ago, maybe two. i see this ad for a G L O R I O U S job as a dental receptionist in center city.
no dental exerience needed. $14.50 an hr *to start* weekly, quarterly, and monthly bonuses benefits no late nites no weekends free trip to florida once a year, completely free.
man, i applied to that shit SO. HARD.
heard nothing.
..until today. they wanna interview me. my dream job wants to interview me and they dont let me know until my first day on this craptastic job.
%$@^&$%^*%&
but!
the angels have smiled on me: the interviewing will take place between 6 and 8 pm.
i am SO goin to that interview. and if i get it? i am SO quittin this job @ the insurance company.
so pray for me.
and i made a hair appointment for friday after work, too, but... she said it's gon be $70. iont know if i can come up offa that. plus i gotta buy a new flat iron, too.. that's a lotta money. so im thinkin bout just gettin a good flat iron, washin my hair, and having them trim it at the shop friday, and then when it's safe, i'll give doin my own perm a shot.
sound like a good deal?
i hope so. somethin must be done.
so, that was my first day. as a reward for sitting thru all this jibba jabba, i give u this: video of the aftermath after my big big ol brother sat on me before he left home after thanksgivin break. http://youtube.com/watch?v=9lEPgi_3reU
i feel so horribly unattractive lately. nothing in my life right now makes me feel pretty.
i need to do laundry so ive been layin around in lounging clothes--they look exactly the way u're probably imagining them
my hair.. oh, god my hair.
i need a perm. badly. not because my roots are out of control, but because im shedding like mad and my hear is breakin off like crazy. i cant go home to get it done, obviously. i *have* to find somewhere to go at LEAST to get it trimmed, cause i know i cant do that myself, especially since it's layered. i'd really like to go to somebody here and get a touch up, a trim, and a roller wrap, but im very afraid of what i'll be charged--its only $40-45 at home, im 95% certain i wont find prices like that here--and i absolutely hate having somebody new do my hair. i was like that even at home too.
plus... the permed ladies ive seen here.. ...yea. i dont think ive seen anybody that i'd ask a recommendation from.
and plus my "ceramic" flat iron? the "ceramic" is rubbing off of the plates. wtf. so i need another one of those. a REAL one. feel free to buy me one, whoever's reading.
so until i can figure out what to do about my hair, im gonna work on everything else, starting with this apartment. its so gross. when i dont have any heat, i dont feel like doing anything that i cant do buried beneath 10 lbs of cover, so i havent cleaned at all in days. my heat is finally back on now though (that was a huge ordeal that i dont even wanna discuss right now), so im gonna clean this little rag tag apartment like its never been cleaned before
then im gonna do some personal pruning--shave some stuff, pluck some stuff, trim some stuff then im gonna give myself a manicure then a peticure, make my toes all nice again give myself a long pampering facial
and do some laundry finally.. im so trife
and then i'll spazz out over my hair.
if any philly ladies reading this have any suggestions on what i cld do/where to go, please leave them here.
and if your suggestion is to go natural, please go find a busy highway and take a nap in the middle of it.
ive been hiding from everybody lately. no real reason why; ive just been very against being social lately. like i'll be 3 minutes into a conversation with someone and just think to myself
'god i really dont want to talk to you.'
nothin personal. i just aint been wantin to talk to niggas. so i aint been talkin to yall.
other than the sunshine that i am sure ive robbed u all of by virtue of keeping my dazzling wit and captivating conversation to myself, it hasnt really been a big loss. i havent had anything to talk about. nothing new, anyway. not really. im still jobless. im still looking. i did have an interview last wednesday though, and the day before that i went to test and register at a temp agency. i think i did pretty good. the lady who administered my tests was super impressed at my typing speed--'we dont even HAVE a speed category for you; we just call you guys 70+' (i hit 81 wpm, i think, and 9400 keystrokes on the alphanumeric data entry test). they tested me on MS Access, which i had never even seen before, let alone used, so i was nervous about that. they also tested me on excel and word, both of which i thought i was pretty familiar with. turns out i scored way higher on access than i did on excel AND word. wtf sense does that make.
while i was there, the lady i had called at the new jersey office called in to the philly office and asked to speak to me. she said she was gonna send my resume to an insurance company to work with claims or adjusting or something like that; no experience needed, she said, they just needed someone good with computers to learn their in-office software pretty quickly. i feel like i can do that. then she said 'blah blah blah $13.50 an hr'
!!!!!!
YES. YES I CAN DO THIS.
i hope i can do that. i talked to my daddy who told me about his career as a claims adjuster way back when before he started working for the army corps of engineers. from what he described it was horrible. he had to like, to survey crash sites and shit and determine whether the victims had any valid claims with the insurance company. he told me this story about having to survey the wreck of this guy's daughter; she'd just graduated high school and he bought her a new car. he had her name airbrushed on a license plate placed at the front of the car. when my dad got to the wreck, he said the license plate was laying in the back seat, bloodstained. the girl died. he said talking to her father was what drove him to quit cold, just called in the next day and said he wasnt coming back.
...yeah. i'd rather not do that kinda work.
i have a feeling that that's not what this work is about though. i got the impression it was more clerical/data entry shit than anything else. im still waiting to hear from them. i called the office friday and left a message, but the lady never got back to me. she seems kinda scatterbrained actually.. i'll call again tomorrow.
the other job i interviewed for was at some fancy schmancy restaurant in old city. it was very, very pretty. really posh. while i was sitting at the table with the guy interviewing me, delivery guys kept coming in with big crates of like, blue crab and squid and big jars of eye of newt. im lying about the eye of newt, but i wldnt have been surprised.
the guy interviewing me was pretty young. his age was a little difficult for me to gage at first; he was definitely older than me and was the unfortunate owner of a too-soonly receeding hairline. that kinda threw me off; those dudes always look way older than they are. at the very least, he was young minded; he said at least three variations of the word 'fuck' as he interviewed me--tres professional, no?--and he had to stop to check an email on his blackberry a few times...think young yuppie kid who had some early success in business and now has some money and responsibility. that was him. he was jewish. he looked jewish. p lus he had a jewish last name that i can't recall. his first name was adam and he wore a very large, unattractive pair of dolce & gobana glasses. very hideous. the logo on the side was like, super huge. i guess that was the point though.
he managed to give me a pretty good rundown of the job in spite of all the interruptions posed between the delivery guys and his blackberry. he works directly under the owner of world fusion restaurant in old city, a guy named wilson, who is poised to embark on three new projects; he's opening two new world fusion restaurants, one in northern liberties here in philly, another in jersey somewhere, and he's starting up a consulting firm of some sort. the ad i responded to was advertised as being a secretary/administrative assistant position; i was especially interested in it because it called for someone with an office background, which i have, with restaurant experience, which i have in moderation, and creative writing experience, which i like to pretend i have. he said that the writing was why i got the call back more so than the clerical and restaurant experience on my resume; i asked why and he said that a huge, huge part of the job was writing proposals and the like. i'll actually be doing very little secretarial work; that portion of the job takes a major backseat to the other stuff he was describing. i'd basially be one of three people working on getting all this stuff done. they take care of the big stuff, and i sort of push everyone to make sure they're getting all their work done, emailing people who need to be emailed, returning calls that need to be returned, etc. the way he described it was actually pretty intimidating; it sounds like i'll have a lot of responsibility that regular old receptionists really dont/shouldnt have. it's more restauranting than office work--finding and setting up venues for banquets, finding head chefs to do the catering, etc. so im kinda nervous about that, but im kinda excited aabout it too. it doesnt pay as much as the insurance gig, but it still pays pretty well; plus i'll have other opportunities to make some extra cash, like if they're ever short staffed for a party or somethin, i can throw on some slacks and a blouse and carry aroudn a tray of food for a few hrs.
i shld hear from them by wednesday. we'll see, i guess.
i didnt win the lottery like i wanted to. im pretty pissed about that.
i also didnt take the coupon/flyer girl gig for a lot of reasons that i dont feel like ppl understand, but screw em. right now im plenny happy sayin that i didnt take the job because i didnt want to take it, and right now, i dont NEED to take it cause...
I JUST GOT MY TAX RETURNS! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!
that's gonna help me out a *lot* man. plus i made my daddy feel guilty about sucking so bad, so he's gonna send me some money soon. i havent paid a single bill this month. yeesh.
im runnin outta stuff to talk about. actually im just losing interest in talking about stuff.
ive been thinking a lot about my future here in the city of philly. i think im slowly coming to realize that as far as cities go... this is a nice place to visit. that may be about it when it comes to me. i mean... i dunno. its just okay. i dont wanna philly bash like i see so many other ppl do, cause i mean it is a nice city, there's a lot of good about it
i just dont feel like its for me. at least not yet. im optimistic though, and im being patient. i wont rush to any conclusions and swear it off yet.
welp, im outta stuff to say. i'll come out of hiding and get at yall soon.
