A Path to Freedom: still going to work a little

So Zhaun had a brilliant idea, and both Bonnie and Bret agree that it's great. We're going to keep me on the payroll and every time Bonnie goes on vacation I'm going to come down, stay with Timmy, and cover her vacation. At my current pay-rate that means 450 dollars every time Bonnie goes on vacation. Three or four times a year, and that's enough to pay all bills and then-some. She always takes the week before Thanksgiving, which doesn't bother me. And she always takes sometime in July or August, this year she wants the first week of August.

I told Nora about quitting, and she was surprised at first but was then so happy for me that she hugged me. She says she and her family play up in the woods in that area all the time. It didn't quite sink in till she'd left but sometime I should see whereabouts she usually goes to, and if it's close maybe invite her over sometime after the house is done. Nora is an Indian (or Native American), and is just a really good person. She got shuffled into service deli because she was the HR person but they got mad at her for not playing Deana's game of hiring friends and family only. But she's otherwise been in a lot of other departments, CSM, service desk, dairy, non-foods, nutrition.

Also told Wanda, who took it in a "I am totally not surprised" kinda way and said, "Finally had enough?" lol

Told the Pepsi guy, not sure how it happened but we became friendly at some point.

So far the general response is somewhat divided. A lot of people are all, "hmm... well, good luck". And some people think it's great. Robin was telling me that Zhaun's actually really sad and will miss me, but he's so tough on the outside that only people who know him will notice it. Robin (sometimes nightchecker, used to do non-foods, is the scanning coordinator backup) thinks it's great what we're doing, and at my age. I told her, "I believe that anyone can do anything they wanted. If they really wanted to do it they would find a way."

And Zhaun is whining that he'll "need to find someone else to do his work for him". Bret even said it, he saw me doing the crew sheets and went, "I don't know what Zhaun's going to do when he doesn't have to do all his work for him". Virginia said it too when I was doing the scan audit, "Doing Zhaun's work? Wonder what he'll do after you leave."

They posted a sign by the time clock asking people to sign if they wanted to get into dairy. And there are hordes of people trying to get off the front end. Addy signed, she used to work in Nutrition but quit under suspicious circumstances and is now back as a bagger. Personally she's the one I'd want to pick if I were in charge. She's fast, she's hard working, and I think out of everyone who signed she's the one who'd be able to keep up and do good. Brittany signed and I don't think she'd be able to do it. She desperately wants off the front end, but I don't think she'd make it in dairy, mainly because I don't want to see her get even more crushed. Addy's pretty strong, though, emotionally, she could probably handle it. I don't know the other people who signed but I'm pretty sure they're all front end people because I know the names of everyone else who works in the other departments.

I more or less have four days off in a row. Dustin leaves on vacation on Thursday, so they have him working Sunday-Wednesday, and me Wednesday-Saturday. But, Bonnie and I talked to Julie and got me four hours on Monday because receiving is closed on Monday but a few vendors will still try and come in and I would have needed to go in anyway to do the orders. I just hope no trucks show up or I won't get all the orders and markdowns and stuff done.

Speaking of Dustin's vacation, Julie told me she really appreciates that I'm staying till he gets back. And apparently I guess Dustin is going to be taking my job because Zhaun told me to start training him on the various reports I do. I had absolutely no time yesterday, but maybe on Monday if I get everything done fast enough we can get started on that. We also work together on Wednesday. And then not again till he gets back. But I'm writing a guide and it's nearly done. I'll print it out and bring it in and we'll go over it and see if it makes sense. Cause Dustin knows how to do pretty much everything, he can order, do shelf reviews, markdowns, audits, he knows how to get ready for P&G, corporate, CAO Audits, he knows what sells and doesn't sell, he can offload trucks. All I need to show him is how to pull reclamation, fill out the shelf review boards, fill out Zhaun's reclamation board, submit reclamation, put in credits, and a few other things. That's one other area where Addy is a good choice because she knows how to do markdowns, audits, and shelf reviews (though she'd need a refresher on shelf reviews and audits).

I got my vacation cashout check yesterday, which was way more than I'd expected due to the payraise I must have gotten at some point last year. I also got my check from last week where I'd worked nearly 48 hours. So that will buy our solar panels. Also, we got some wiring things we needed for the batteries. Now the only thing left to get are the panels themselves.

I've also got more packing done. I filled an entire bucket with old aprons from work. 0_0 I'm not throwing them away because they would make good scrap fabric. Or we can fix some of them up so they're not broken anymore, if we needed an apron for something. I also have nearly all my board games in boxes. Yes, they take up a lot of box-room, but I can cram stuff in around them, and keeps the game boxes from being damaged. Also, I have an unlimited supply of boxes. Eggs are on sale and that means I could bring home tons of boxes every day if I wanted to.

We're going to watch Avatar (super extended blu-ray version) probably today and then I'll pack our movies. I also have buckets of clothes that are nearly full. I have a sweater that I washed the other day that I will be finishing off a bucket with.

I need to clean up my sewing table.

The Neopets forums has been exploding the last few days. Sign-ups started, and I promptly joined Team Haunted Woods. The main game of the Altador Cup kinda really sucks, and I'm not the only one who thinks so! Everyone's been complaining about it. And the petition to get the game changed has nearly 3,000 NeoUsers on it. My username is #1193. Cause while I don't really think they could change it with such a limited time to do so it doesn't hurt to sign. And TNT (the neopets team) has made minimal changes, but nothing that will help greatly. The #1 biggest issue with the game is how the team members are controlled. You can control three people on the field and there's a goalie. So it's something of a soccar/hockey style game. Which team member you control depends on where the ball is. Say you're playing as Team Member #1 and you're running left towards the ball but the ball goes a fraction of an inch too far left and suddenly you're playing as Team Member #2, who was on the other side of the ball, and you suddenly find yourself running left still, but now you're running away from the ball. So you go to fix that by running right, only now that you've run far enough left you're back to controlling Team Member #1 again, who is now also running away from the ball. Meanwhile the other team has picked up the ball. Also, the other team can steal the ball from you but you can't steal from them. And you cannot control the goalie. I believe my average is 4-9, me losing. Some people are getting used to it and scoring 10-0s. I should probably go practice a little. During the week of sign-ups you get a week to practice.

Also, it's been raining almost non-stop for the last week. It's been so nice. I just wish I hadn't packed all my jackets without hoods cause I feel silly wearing my hat with a jacket that has a hood on it.

Oh, picture time. These were all taken on my mom's camera because I didn't bring mine. These are from Tuesday.