Today I stopped at Walmart to pick up a few groceries. Something I've really started to like is the Tai Pei Vegetable Pot Stickers. Last week they were out of them. Again, this week there were none.
So, when I got to the checkout, I asked the cashier, "who should I talk to about a missing product?" She told me a manager, and then preceded to call one over. The person who came over then went to check the shelf (don't know why they didn't have me come with them the first time ...) He came back and told me that he thought he'd found what I wanted. But when he showed me it, it was not it. I showed him exactly what I was talking about - only they had the Pork and the Chicken Pot Stickers. He ended up calling someone else over, who eventually told me she'd put in a request for it!
All this time I was just thinking that there'd be a form or something to fill out with a product request ... 
I am not totally sure why I decided to ask about it today. There are so many different products that are vegetarian (or at least without meat!) that are only on the shelves for a short while, and then Poof! It becomes quite frustrating.
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So, I can't remember if I mentioned it here or not, but I finally got an interview set up with the Oil & Gas company. 
It is for one-week from today.
A kind of funny thing happened - in the email where the interview was set up, the person put 11:30 PM. I didn't notice it until I went back to the email for a second time to get the address. I emailed back and asked to "clarify" our appointment time. I'm now kind of wondering if that was some kind of a test - because not too long after that I received another email with a link to a couple of pre=employment tests. Hmm...
I totally panicked when I saw what the one test was over though ... Excel 2007!! I don't even know anyone who owns a copy! I'm very familiar with 2003, but have never even opened Excel 2007. I have worked with Word and PowerPoint 2007 (and HATED them) but not Excel.
So, I thought I would try at the library yesterday. Their computers have 2003. Another nearby branch has 2000. I ended up borrowing two "dummy" books on Excel from the library, and watching a bunch (5 hours worth) of tutorial videos on youtube.
This afternoon I took the test(s).
The Excel test was 35 questions long, and I missed 4 (5 of them I got on the second try.) A couple of the questions I just plain didn't understand (a formula one, and a couple others way beyond me.)
The other part of the test was 80 questions long. Part of it was math (ugh!!!!!!!!!!), part of it spelling/grammar (choose the correct sentence), part of it was comparing two lines of numbers/text and saying whether they matched or not, and finally, the last section (longest) was reading this chart and then answering questions from it.
I think I did the best on the last part. There was one question though that was completely wrong. It was asking for which job required the *most* amount of years in education and experience. Three of the jobs needed 21, and one needed 19. I read that one over and over and over. Finally I just clicked something and moved on.
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I have the feeling I'm getting kicked out of here sooner than later. Ex-stepdad asked me this afternoon if there was much left to my schoolwork now. His fiancee is getting anxious for me to be out of here. (not that he's said this to me.. but he has said it to my mom).
If I get this oil and gas job, hopefully I can appease him to let me stay at least til I can get my own place lined up. I really, really, don't want to stay with my mom. But that is my only other option at this point.
Our interaction last night after the tutoring appointment is a case in point. Moms telling me why she decided to not move in to a 2br apt. "I feel like I've always done too much for you guys (my brother and I) and you never have shown me any appreciation. So maybe it is better to do less ..."
I seriously wanted to jump out of the car and SCREAM!!!! Seriously? We've never shown any appreciation?? Wow - must have been some other woman I've been doing stuff for over the years. Some other woman who I left cases of Diet Coke in her apartment when she couldn't afford them ... Some other woman who I took multiple days off of work to take care of her after one pointless and ridiculous surgery, as well as after an actual necessary one ... some other woman who I spent Thanksgiving Day helping to pack her things ... Some other woman who has never had a birthday or mother's day forgotten (at least not by me!) ... and I could continue on and on.
Oh, and then the night before ... my first night doing an extra session with this same family ... I get to the house about 5:10. I ring the doorbell twice. I knock. I freeze my tushie. Finally! I am let in. What is the first thing I'm greeted with? Mom: You are 15 minutes late! How are you going to make up that time?
Nice!
I calmly explained to her that No, I was NOT 15 minutes late. I had told the mom when we made the arrangements that I could not be sure exactly how long it would take me to get there due to traffic. So we had said I'd arrive between 5 and 5:30. I had to drop a tutoring client off across town at 4:30. If I was a little further up the particular freeway, I would have been able to make it by 5. But where I was at, it was total bumper to bumper for 20 minutes. I didn't even stop anywhere for a sorely needed bathroom break.
Needless to say, I was ticked.
Last night I told her I had not appreciated her talking to me like that - especially in front of the students. She told me that my being late "reflected badly on her." Oh that was SWEET! MY being late reflected on her?? I can count on one hand the number of times that I have been late to a tutoring appointment since starting in January, 2010. She'd need to borrow the hands and feet of all of her clients, plus some. Just saying.
So ... can you see just how famously we would get along living in close quarters for more than a few days??
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The really awesome, fantastic super duper news though is this .... MY BROTHER IS COMING ON MAY 10!!!!! He's coming for my graduation, but decided to come a few days early. That is the only graduation present I need.
The only dilemma is this ... if I get the oil and gas job, I knew I was already going to ask for the Friday off (May 13.) But ... with my brother being in town a few days early ... I'd really like to ask for Wednesday and Thursday off as well. But it would be SO soon after starting ... Maybe if I just asked for Wednesday and Thursday afternoon (and all day Friday)?
WalMart, PreEmployTesting, Fun w/Mom, Super News!!.
April 1st, 2011 at 01:31 am
April 1st, 2011 at 04:43 am 1301632987
How nice that your brother will be able to make your graduation, and how nice that you are graduating!
I'm still hoping for a librarian job, but the gas & oil company job would be nice in the meantime. Good luck!
April 1st, 2011 at 05:03 am 1301634223
Its nice to think about a job conflicting with your brother's visit
Apparently we are "upgrading" to Excel 2007 and I'm not looking forward to it either.
April 1st, 2011 at 12:55 pm 1301662559
I have had similar troubles trying to find Stouffer's Welsh Rarebit. Sometimes it's there, mostly it's not. I love it, and I can't ever duplicate it from scratch.
Excel 2007 was a learning curve for me -- it was just dumped on me when I took this job and I had to learn it myself. It's finally beginning to make sense, but I wish they would quit "improving" things.
April 1st, 2011 at 01:52 pm 1301665974
Needless to say I either need a cheap place to live and/or a real w2 job ... Soon.
April 1st, 2011 at 01:54 pm 1301666094
April 1st, 2011 at 03:05 pm 1301670337
April 1st, 2011 at 05:21 pm 1301678498
April 1st, 2011 at 07:29 pm 1301686188
Good luck with EVERYTHING!
April 1st, 2011 at 09:22 pm 1301692949
April 2nd, 2011 at 02:54 am 1301712858