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Sep. 7th, 2010 @ 09:14 am
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What I've learned today is that Rochester wants its citizens to play with sick or dead animals. Could you get sick? Meh, who cares. Could the sick animal bite you? Well, there's only one way to find out. Is it really dead? That is for you, not animal control, to decide. What happened? Well, I was leaving the house yesterday and walking by the backyard I noticed a little critter by my landlord's flowers. I took a few steps closer, took some pictures, and determined it to be a groundhog, which I had never seen until I moved to Rochester. I got so close I thought I could touch it- and it only casually glanced in my direction. It looked soft and fluffy, so I DID pet him. He was not soft nor fluffy, by the way. So I brought him a snack and went on my way. When I came back he was even more lethargic, though he had moved a few feet, and so I called animal control. They directed me to call 311 because they were closed for Labor Day. The problem with that is that 311 is also closed for Labor Day. Soooo I left 311 a voicemail with my issue. This morning they called me and asked if it was dead or alive... So I went out and poked it with an uneaten celery stalk, naturally. It didn't react, so I said it was probably dead. The woman then told me that the officers will not enter private property to retrieve a dead animal, so I have to bring it to the curb somehow. Uncertain of how to proceed, I brought 2 plastic bags out back, but I still didn't want to touch him even through the bag if he was dead. Then he picked up his head to see what was happening. I ran back in the house, redialed animal control, and corrected my previous diagnosis. I am now awaiting the arrival of an officer. I would like to ask him why he's allowed on private property if there is a live animal but not if there is one that is believed to be dead. Gratefully my animal was just a groundhov, basically less dangerous than a bunny, but I can imagine the same procedures are followed for animals with a bit more risk involved in assessing its vitals- skunks, raccoons, badgers, alligators, and yetis, for example.
I guess we should feel honored- they say you should choose your home based on where you wouldn't mind dying. So this groundhog choosing our backyard in which to spend his last days, well, it says something about our yard, I guess... or at least it would have had the groundhog really had any choice in the matter. So, little C-Quarter, I hope you lived a good groundhoggy life. I hope the groundhog/woodchuck debate did not cause you identity issues. I hope you enjoyed the celery I gave you for your last meal. Please don't tell all your friends to make this their final destination as well. Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.
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Abba, into your hands I entrust my body, mind, and spirit and this entire day- morning, afternoon, evening, and night. Whatever you want of my, I want of me, falling into you and trusting in you in the midst of my life. Into your heart I entrust my heart, feeble, distracted, insecure, uncertain. Abba, unto you I abandon myself in Jesus our Lord. Amen.
-Brennan Manning, Ruthless Trust |
Life is hard right now... in actuality, life isn't all that difficult for ME, but watching it be so hard for those I care so much about is not an easy thing either, especially when I don't know how to help.
This is a song by JJ Heller. It's pretty much exactly where I'm at, though I do have trouble seeing in faith what God will do, has already done in the heavenly realms, is doing right now.
I have unanswered prayers
I have trouble I wish wasn't there
And I have asked a thousand ways
That You would take my pain away
That You would take my pain away
I am trying to understand
How to walk this weary land
Make straight the paths that crookedly lie
Oh Lord, before these feet of mine
Oh Lord, before these feet of mine
When my world is shaking
Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave Your hands
When You walked upon the Earth
You healed the broken, lost, and hurt
I know You hate to see me cry
One day You will set all things right
Yea, one day You will set all things right
When my world is shaking
Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave Your hands
Your hands
Your hands that shape the world
Are holding me- they hold me still
Your hands that shape the world
Are holding me- they hold me still
When my world is shaking
Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave Your handsCurrent Mood:  hard pressed Current Music: JJ Heller - Your Hands |
Remember playing that game, Life, and you have to decide at the beginning if you want to go to college first? It puts you in mega debt, but you have more career choices and a better chance of a better salary. If you choose not to go to college, your chances are reduced.
Either way, it's still up to chance. I always found that funny- who would really end up with that bottom salary after college or that sweet job without it?
That game is a lot more like real life than I thought.
I have a college degree in Spanish and Secondary Education.
I have three years of teaching experience and valid teaching licenses for two very selective states.
I am bilingual.
I serve bagels.
I am back at Panera and have been since August 31st.
The thing is, I love it.
I don't even mind getting up at 4:15 every morning to go to work.
I don't mind that high schoolers can do my job.
I don't mind that former students and colleagues come in now and then.
I don't mind that my big accomplishments are getting that shy little boy to talk to me or helping a new customer get exactly what they want.
I don't mind that my big goal is to reach 200 transactions in one day. (My record is 196- SO CLOSE!)
I don't mind that creativity in m y job means drawing on the lattes with syrup or arranging the loaves or pastries differently.
I don't even mind that there's a piece of sourdough bread bowl crust stuck in my keyboard that makes it harder to type.
I love what I do.
I love being done at 1pm.
I love not taking work home with me unless I'm going to eat it.
I love that my managers trust me and appreciate the hard work I am doing.
I love that I have managers- people who are paying attention to the overall picture and also catch the details to redirect me as needed.
I love that I have jobs to do with people and on my own.
I love that I can get excited about our product.
I love connecting with customers, especially regulars.
I love 65% discounts while I'm working.
I love that I am so much happier than I was when I was teaching.
I LOVE building relationships with my coworkers.
Yes, I have no benefits (right now). Yes, I make, like, NO money. Yes, I run around all day. Yes, I'm quite tired at 1. Yes, I have to go to bed at 8pm if I want a full night of sleep.
I
don't
care.
If I can afford to do so, I feel like I could do this for a long time. It is, believe it or not, so much more fulfilling to me than teaching. My perspective on lots of things has changed, which I know has contributed to this, but it's not about state tests or classroom management or selling bagels or making the perfect latte. It's not even about reaching 200 transactions. It's about the Kingdom. It's about making disciples. At school, especially in NY, I was so pulled be everything else that relationships weren't really formed at all. Even though I was able to build some friendships in MA, they weren't very deep. Here, I work alongside people- we complete tasks together, we see almost everything everyone else does, we share responsibility for the success or failure of our tasks, we cover for one another, support one another, and have lots of time in the midst of it to build friendships. At the last school I was in, I don't know who the believers were. I didn't know anyone well enough to ever find that out. Now we have all found each other and several of them ask me to pray for things in their lives. I haven't gotten to the point of asking for their prayers as well, because I haven't had anything that wasn't uber personal or would take a lot of explaining to ask for prayer for, really. Anyway, I feel as though fruit will come out of this bakery... ha ha. I also love that I make lots of bread jokes.They are so lame, but all of us make them, so they're only unappreciated when I'm NOT at work. : ) Anyway, I pray that this is true- that God would use where I am to bring the Truth to those before me, to those for whom I am growing to care so deeply.Current Mood:  sleepy |
Everything is changing.
It rocks.Current Mood:  happy |
My current employment is in an amazing facility that is a lot of fun to come to as a customer. Often times it is also quite a wonderful place to work as well. My primary role there is a birthday party host. Parents can pay between $200 and $350 for the use of our facilities and staff for up to 10 participants. They are welcome to invite more people, but we charge them for it.
The parties are actually quite well organized and run smoothly (for the most part). Participants are generally well behaved and follow our every instruction. Parents are put at ease by our safety checks, smiles, and "professionalism" (put in quotes because I have a hard time seeing anything with t-shirt uniforms and singing happy birthday, complete with a "cha cha cha" between each line as remotely professional). We know what we're doing and they have no choice but to trust us with the lives of their children because they don't know how to do what we do and they signed a waiver saying it's not our fault if something goes wrong.
For many of our birthday kids, this is an awesome experience and a really cool way to celebrate your birthday. For some of them, it's a Veruca Salt experience- "Gimme an expensive, massive, party at which I'm going to be an absolute nightmare! NOW!"
This is not what I don't understand. I realize there are lots of spoiled children and I've hosted several of them. They can be a nightmare so long as they follow the rules. They can be arrogant and bossy and rude all day. But when they start endangering themselves or the other kids, I have a problem.
Even that I understand, however. Having taught for three years, I fully understand that kids who are not disciplined at home will have no understanding of why they should follow the rules. There are no consequences for them at home, so why would there be here?
What I don't understand is why have this kind of party for a five year old?? They won't really remember it, their friends won't really remember it, and they would have been just as happy with a sprinkler in the backyard as with this kind of party. Even more, why spend $500 on having tons of extra people at your party for your five year old? I cannot imagine spending that much money on a little kid's party.
Now, I might want to have a party like that NOW, but I'd remember it now. Most five year olds don't actually get much out of their experience anyway. It's a short-lived novelty for them. They don't have the drive or the stamina to really enjoy their own party.
This job does not pay very well. This is not a complaint, just a fact. I wouldn't expect it to pay more, really. A twelve year old could gain the skills needed to do the majority of the job, then the rest is just schmoozing, serving pizza and cake, and time management to make sure they're getting out the door on time. There are two payoffs to this position, and neither of them are in my paycheck. Payoff one is a free membership. I get to play there when I want. I don't take advantage of this all that often, but I may now that I'm not teaching and I live super close to it. Payoff number two are the tips. Parents like it when we engage with the kids, when we keep them from doing any work, when we tell stupid jokes we learned from Laffy Taffy wrappers. They pay us for it. I like this, not just because it's more money, but it's motivation to improve. The company will pay me the same as a guy who does his job with minimal personality, enthusiasm, or even skill, really. Parents sometimes come in knowing what they will tip us, but there are certainly times when they recognize our efforts. There are also times when despite all we do, the parents don't realize that tipping is standard. They probably would have been quite generous had they known, but it's not your typical service. We're not waiters, hairdressers, or valets.
There are other times, like yesterday, when they are upset to find out their party racked up $500 in charges and they get so upset by this that they fight against paying even their bill, let alone giving any extra to their exhausted servers. Ten participants is our standard. This party had 19 participants and even more people standing around. Pizza serving time was a nightmare. It was awful. Present time was disorganized and messy. It was almost an impossible party, really. The kids were running around and wouldn't heed direction. Even so, those of us working did everything we could. We handled it as well as we could. And she argued with the manager about her bill and left us with empty pockets.
I recognize that tips are not something I should be expecting. I am paid hourly. I'm not stuck on a waitress pay rate or anything. I love what I do (most of the time) and being able to work with those kids in setting goals, challenging themselves, watching them achieve, even just playing with them for a few hours- all of this is reward enough. I'm not one to cry, but I'll admit there have been times I've been very near tears when I see a kid who has been struggling or thought they couldn't do it rise beyond their own expectations and fears to conquer what had previously seemed impossible for them. I love being a part of that. Maybe it's the camp counselor and teacher in me.
Some of these kids are not like that, though. Some of them are awful, arrogant showoffs. Some of them refuse to take any suggestion, to try something new, to admit when things are difficult. Some of them don't appreciate the opportunity they've been given, don't appreciate anything they have. Some of their parents are the same way.
Yesterday was a very discouraging day at work. Hopefully my next group on Tuesday will be far more rewarding. I am quite certain I won't be receiving a tip Tuesday because of the kind of group we're hosting, but I certainly hope they are more fun to work with than these awful 5 year olds I had yesterday.
And no, it's not because they are five. I have worked with wonderful five year olds. These ones were, like, evil rotten nasty children.
So, basically, if you have very young children, please don't take them to our facility for their birthday. Wait until they are old enough to appreciate it. Wait until they've learned how to behave in public. Wait until they follow instructions. Wait until they can fit into our equipment. If you can't wait until then, please suggest they book someone else to work your party.Current Mood:  annoyed Current Music: One of these things first |
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Jun. 9th, 2009 @ 01:30 pm
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Here's what I want and I'm pretty sure it doesn't exist.
I don't really have time (or the appetite) to eat a full breakfast. I want a meal-type-beverage (like Ensure), but I have special requirements for it, as normal ones probably do more harm than good.
1. Sugar free... and nasty fake sugar free. I don't trust Splenda and the like. At the very least, incredibly low sugar would be okay.
2. Dairy free. I didn't realize how important that was until today.
3. High calorie. I go through a lot of them. This is especially hard to find in conjunction with low sugar. This is supposed to give me energy to burn, not just trick my stomach into thinking I actually ate.
4. High protein. This is a point I can compromise as well.
5. Not unbearably disgusting. This is a relative requirement and the most flexible. I am not altogether picky, however. Yesterday I drank (and very much enjoyed!) a mixture of cider, spinach, pineapple juice, and celery... so my idea of "unbearably disgusting" is perhaps slightly different from the norm.
Five requirements, some of which are flexible or relative. Wegmans proved unable to meet these needs yesterday. I settled by ignoring my second demand. That may have been a poor choice.
I also have some Odwalla bars that are good, but super sweet (in my opinion). I can't finish one. If it were salty snacky... oh, I could finish 3 of them. Why do these meal-substitute people assume that all of their customers are sweet-toothed?Current Mood:  tired Current Music: You Never Let Go -Matt Redman |
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