The beauty that was last week
The week started with a cat. It was monday night and I was happily reading my Laurell K Hamilton book on the bus when a cat reached out and grabbed me. The girl whose backback the cat was in apologized and I told her how I'd been unable to afford a cat and was happy to see hers. The girl reminded me of Stephanie who used to date Burt at first. I'm not sure why. Maybe because she was thin like Stephanie and had the presence of someone who was both young and old. As she spoke I knew that the similarities ended there. She told me how her father and her were homeless, but her father had let her keep the cat anyways. There is a program at the humane society that helps take care of cats that was getting the kitty his shots and would provide cat food for a year. She then told me how the cat had seperation anxiety and that wasn't a problem since she hat the cat with her all the time, but when she got in crowded places and the cat didn't get attention the cat got sad and meowed alot or reached out for people like he did me. She and her father then began talking about how nice people had been. A guy had just given them bus tickets. On New Years the Tri-Met office hadn't informed people that the last Max was coming earlier than usual so there was about 12 people waiting for a Max that would not come. People were getting worried and didn't know what to do than a bus pulled up and told them all that he was instructed to get them all to thier destinations, and he didn't just mean busstops. He took each person to the doorstep they were going to. The bus ride ended and we went our seperate ways.
On Wed. I had to send paperwork to Progressive. I had thought I was going to bus out to the office but looking at the bus schedule I could totally see myself missing my stop and being out alot of time and didn't know of a reason why I couldn't just fax and mail so I did that. I thought I'd remembered an Office store by Pioneer Square. I got there and looked around and didn't find one and started to get nervous that I'd just messed everything up. So I talked to god, because that's what I do, and in this instance Portlandia since it was her town and all. I got the idea to buck up and ask for directions, wich I hate doing. I went to the Radio Shack and asked the guys there if they knew of a place around there to fax things. The guy asked if it was a local number and when I told him it was he said he'd fax it for me. I was happy and thanked him alot. I then asked if he knew where a mailbox was. He replied "I think there's one in the Portland building. It's about two blocks down. You know the one with the big statue of Portlandia on top." He made the I've got a big trident and am brandishing it menicingly gesture. I smiled and assured him I knew thinking to myself "I know, I get the picture. You realy didn't need to be so blatent. Gatitute your way goddess." I happily went the to the Portland building, but didn't see the mailbox. I asked the big guy at the security desk if he knew where a mailbox was. He paused to think and then replied in a beutiful lisp, "Do you need this to go out today?" "Today? Yea today is good" I knew it was approaching 5:00. "Well if you need it to go out today there's a blue box one block that way. Just go out that door and walk foreward a block. You won't miss it." I thanked him, depositied my envelope and went on my way smiling with gratitude and love for her.
I knew it would be another odd day because I kept shocking myself when I touched random things. Later in my shift was feeling a time crunch as I tried to get my freight done enough that I could do the return bin before I had to go home. I was stressing and realized I hadn't taken my break so I decided to do that and stress later. On break I had a bit of cigarette and closed my eyes for a moment and realized I'd started grounding. I went with it, figuring I must have needed it. When I ground I always root and become a tree, usually an evergreen or weeping willow. This time I felt myself blossom. It felt odd. I wondered what sort of tree I was and what I was doing blossoming in winter. My first thought was flowering cherry because they're some of the first to blossom when spring's coming but I knew as soon as I thought it that it was wrong. That those were apple blossoms and I didn't care if it was winter I was doing it anyways. I finished the exercise and returned to work (shocking myself repeatedly on my way back to the department) feeling much more peaceful.
At work on Sat. I had a conversation with my new boss (aka New Amy) about my career. I told her that I really want to become a sectionhead and wanted to know if she had any ideas on how I could do that. She asked if I was interested in getting PIC (Person in charge) training and picking up some PIC shifts. One of our current PICs is leaving the state so there would be a few shifts to fill, also we currently only have two so if one of them is sick there's only one to cover. It means management responsibilities. I told her I'd be interested. She told me that Karen, the current Intimits and Accessories Sectionhead was also interested in PIC shifts and that she was thinking of dividing the section so that Karen would have Intimits and I would have Accessories and we would both be PICs. I told her that I liked the idea. It was an idea that Old Amy had been pondering but never actually told me about. I then mentioned that Walker Road had a Children's sectionhead position open and asked what she thought about me applying for it. She told me that she thought I definately could do the job That the the manager there was really nice and that if I could get on full time at Walker Road she wouldn't stop me, and even if I can't the interview experience would be worth applying for. This is something I've been waiting for a manager to say for awile. My former manager would have acted as if it was me trying to run out on her or told me a reason why I didn't want to work for that other store. I've never had someone be so supportive before. It made me wonder if New Amy was just too new at this whole management thing to be devious or if she was just a good person. It pleased me.
On Wed. I had to send paperwork to Progressive. I had thought I was going to bus out to the office but looking at the bus schedule I could totally see myself missing my stop and being out alot of time and didn't know of a reason why I couldn't just fax and mail so I did that. I thought I'd remembered an Office store by Pioneer Square. I got there and looked around and didn't find one and started to get nervous that I'd just messed everything up. So I talked to god, because that's what I do, and in this instance Portlandia since it was her town and all. I got the idea to buck up and ask for directions, wich I hate doing. I went to the Radio Shack and asked the guys there if they knew of a place around there to fax things. The guy asked if it was a local number and when I told him it was he said he'd fax it for me. I was happy and thanked him alot. I then asked if he knew where a mailbox was. He replied "I think there's one in the Portland building. It's about two blocks down. You know the one with the big statue of Portlandia on top." He made the I've got a big trident and am brandishing it menicingly gesture. I smiled and assured him I knew thinking to myself "I know, I get the picture. You realy didn't need to be so blatent. Gatitute your way goddess." I happily went the to the Portland building, but didn't see the mailbox. I asked the big guy at the security desk if he knew where a mailbox was. He paused to think and then replied in a beutiful lisp, "Do you need this to go out today?" "Today? Yea today is good" I knew it was approaching 5:00. "Well if you need it to go out today there's a blue box one block that way. Just go out that door and walk foreward a block. You won't miss it." I thanked him, depositied my envelope and went on my way smiling with gratitude and love for her.
I knew it would be another odd day because I kept shocking myself when I touched random things. Later in my shift was feeling a time crunch as I tried to get my freight done enough that I could do the return bin before I had to go home. I was stressing and realized I hadn't taken my break so I decided to do that and stress later. On break I had a bit of cigarette and closed my eyes for a moment and realized I'd started grounding. I went with it, figuring I must have needed it. When I ground I always root and become a tree, usually an evergreen or weeping willow. This time I felt myself blossom. It felt odd. I wondered what sort of tree I was and what I was doing blossoming in winter. My first thought was flowering cherry because they're some of the first to blossom when spring's coming but I knew as soon as I thought it that it was wrong. That those were apple blossoms and I didn't care if it was winter I was doing it anyways. I finished the exercise and returned to work (shocking myself repeatedly on my way back to the department) feeling much more peaceful.
At work on Sat. I had a conversation with my new boss (aka New Amy) about my career. I told her that I really want to become a sectionhead and wanted to know if she had any ideas on how I could do that. She asked if I was interested in getting PIC (Person in charge) training and picking up some PIC shifts. One of our current PICs is leaving the state so there would be a few shifts to fill, also we currently only have two so if one of them is sick there's only one to cover. It means management responsibilities. I told her I'd be interested. She told me that Karen, the current Intimits and Accessories Sectionhead was also interested in PIC shifts and that she was thinking of dividing the section so that Karen would have Intimits and I would have Accessories and we would both be PICs. I told her that I liked the idea. It was an idea that Old Amy had been pondering but never actually told me about. I then mentioned that Walker Road had a Children's sectionhead position open and asked what she thought about me applying for it. She told me that she thought I definately could do the job That the the manager there was really nice and that if I could get on full time at Walker Road she wouldn't stop me, and even if I can't the interview experience would be worth applying for. This is something I've been waiting for a manager to say for awile. My former manager would have acted as if it was me trying to run out on her or told me a reason why I didn't want to work for that other store. I've never had someone be so supportive before. It made me wonder if New Amy was just too new at this whole management thing to be devious or if she was just a good person. It pleased me.