As The Microcosm Turns
So I got a call from RMUTA HR Man today, or rather I got a message he left on his answering machine, about I-9 documentation, which surprised me as that isn't usually requested until you actually start work. This, of course, sent me into a frenzy of nerves about OMGWTFBBQ I WAAAAAANT THIS JOOOOOOOOBBBBBBB.
(Explanatory note for the non-Americans on the flist: I-9 documentation establishes your right to work in the US. All employers are required to verify your eligibility for employment, and you can do this by providing certain kinds of ID; the government provides employers with lists of what constitutes acceptable ID. You can provide something like a passport, which establishes both your identity and your citizenship, or you can provide, say, a driver's license to establish your identity and a Social Security card to establish your citizenship/right to work in the US. Employers must accept any documentation that is approved by the government for employment authorization purposes; they are not entitled to specify which documents are okay and not okay. Moreover, your I-9 documentation must be submitted to the federal government by your employer within three days.)
As I think I mentioned in my previous post about getting the job, RMUTA originally wanted me to start on 6 December; however, they didn't call me to offer me a job until 2 December, which was very short notice and probably wouldn't have been enough time to get all the pre-employment screening back. I also mentioned that, uh, I was currently employed and would need to give notice, so it was decided that I would start on 20 December. Turns out, HR Man put me down in the system as starting on the earlier date, with the result that the Powers That Be are all like WHERE IS THIS WOMAN'S I-9 DOCUMENTATION AND WHY IS IT NOT IN YET. Fortunately, it's fairly quick and easy to fix.
Also, after talking to the HR lady at work today, I learnt that I am getting two more checks, not one as I had previously assumed; I will get a direct deposit (final paycheck for, like, work I actually did) and then be issued a live check for vacation pay. :D
It was nice on Saturday, and I actually had the day off, so lolmom and I decided to go to Salem (home of the legendary used bookstore, where I hadn't been in a good two years), where we a.) dumped a shitton of my father's old microbiology textbooks from the '70s and the economics textbooks from his brief sojourn in the IU MBA program in the '80s. (He dropped out, but this was in the days when you didn't have to have an MBA to succeed in business. I'm reasonably sure he regrets that now.)
and
b.) picked up MOAR BOOKS. For a small-town friends-of-the-library used bookstore, they always have really good stuff and I've never had trouble picking up things I wanted to read there. :D I am now richer to the tune of a lot of historical fiction. Also, I stopped lolmom from buying a book she already owns.
Then we drove into Jeffersonville to eat at Adrienne & Co., a lunch spot where I haven't been in yonks--regrettable, because their food is so delicious. Seriously, they ask you what kind of bread you want your sandwich on. Lolmom was hungry for avocado, so she had the chicken avocado (one of my favorites), and I had the turkey chipotle mayo sandwich. And we both had a vanilla cupcake XD It was really good; your standard cupcake is like, "Hi. I am a white cupcake and have white icing, so I must be vanilla," but Adrienne's cupcakes are moist and sweet and tasty and you can actually taste the vanilla in the icing and the cupcake. In fact, we didn't hold back and bought a couple of ginormous cupcakes on the way out, along with some cannoli and half-priced scones. If any of y'all are ever in the Louisville area, it's just across the bridge in Jeffersonville, and you're missing out.
After that pleasant repast, we went down on Main Street, where I'd always wanted to investigate but never had the time when I was abstracting. We meandered up and down, wandering in here and there; we found some really adorable things for X-chan, which I won't enumerate because I think she knows I live here on the Internet. (I don't know that she actually ever reads my journal, but better safe than sorry amirite.) We also went to Schimpff's Confectionary and Candy Museum. The flood levels are marked outside on the pillars that hold up the awning, and at first I was like, "there is no way the floods came up that high in 1884," until I saw an old picture from the '30s inside wherein the floodwater covered the globes of the street lamps. The candy museum is only a couple of rooms, but it's an interesting window into another time; they had a traveling salesman's demo kit from the first decade of the 20th century, candy still intact. (Hard candy doesn't rot; it just seems to get dull.) There was also a shitton of vintage candy tins, some from your well-known brands (Hershey's and Ghirardelli) and others less so (Everybody Loves A Dam Bar--a slogan which I am sure delighted children of yesteryear).
Schimpff's also has a demo area wherein you can see candy canes being made, which is kind of neat. Apparently, when we lived in Martinsville, there was a confectioner's that used to do the same thing around Christmas, and Mom and I would stop to watch the process. I was only two or three at the time, so I don't have any memory of this, which gave the lolmom a sad.
We had planned to go to the movies that night, but both of us were pretty tired (I got up early and lolmom didn't get much sleep in the car), so forbore and wound up crashing. I did finally get some sleep on Sunday night, and woke up Monday with a hideous swollen eye. A-feared that it was conjunctivitis, I called the optometrist's whilst trying not to panic, since, y'know, appearing at my new job with a hideous swollen monster eye is not exactly the first impression I want to make. My optometrist thinks it's not conjunctivitis, rather that I'm having an allergic reaction to something and there might be some bacterial activity going on. I have no idea WHAT I could be having a reaction to; I don't remember getting anything in my eye, and I haven't been wearing eye makeup since the last time I was afraid I had conjunctivitis (optometrist thinks it's unlikely to be a cosmetic allergy); we're very consistent with things like laundry detergent because lolmom has severe allergic reactions and so we can only use a few brands. Anyway, I got the good eyedrops so things seem to be clearing up.
Then it snowed yesterday and we're probably going to be precipitated upon tomorrow. God damn.
And that's really it. Three more days at the 'Mart, and then a weekend, and then Teh New Job. :D Hooray!
(Explanatory note for the non-Americans on the flist: I-9 documentation establishes your right to work in the US. All employers are required to verify your eligibility for employment, and you can do this by providing certain kinds of ID; the government provides employers with lists of what constitutes acceptable ID. You can provide something like a passport, which establishes both your identity and your citizenship, or you can provide, say, a driver's license to establish your identity and a Social Security card to establish your citizenship/right to work in the US. Employers must accept any documentation that is approved by the government for employment authorization purposes; they are not entitled to specify which documents are okay and not okay. Moreover, your I-9 documentation must be submitted to the federal government by your employer within three days.)
As I think I mentioned in my previous post about getting the job, RMUTA originally wanted me to start on 6 December; however, they didn't call me to offer me a job until 2 December, which was very short notice and probably wouldn't have been enough time to get all the pre-employment screening back. I also mentioned that, uh, I was currently employed and would need to give notice, so it was decided that I would start on 20 December. Turns out, HR Man put me down in the system as starting on the earlier date, with the result that the Powers That Be are all like WHERE IS THIS WOMAN'S I-9 DOCUMENTATION AND WHY IS IT NOT IN YET. Fortunately, it's fairly quick and easy to fix.
Also, after talking to the HR lady at work today, I learnt that I am getting two more checks, not one as I had previously assumed; I will get a direct deposit (final paycheck for, like, work I actually did) and then be issued a live check for vacation pay. :D
It was nice on Saturday, and I actually had the day off, so lolmom and I decided to go to Salem (home of the legendary used bookstore, where I hadn't been in a good two years), where we a.) dumped a shitton of my father's old microbiology textbooks from the '70s and the economics textbooks from his brief sojourn in the IU MBA program in the '80s. (He dropped out, but this was in the days when you didn't have to have an MBA to succeed in business. I'm reasonably sure he regrets that now.)
and
b.) picked up MOAR BOOKS. For a small-town friends-of-the-library used bookstore, they always have really good stuff and I've never had trouble picking up things I wanted to read there. :D I am now richer to the tune of a lot of historical fiction. Also, I stopped lolmom from buying a book she already owns.
Then we drove into Jeffersonville to eat at Adrienne & Co., a lunch spot where I haven't been in yonks--regrettable, because their food is so delicious. Seriously, they ask you what kind of bread you want your sandwich on. Lolmom was hungry for avocado, so she had the chicken avocado (one of my favorites), and I had the turkey chipotle mayo sandwich. And we both had a vanilla cupcake XD It was really good; your standard cupcake is like, "Hi. I am a white cupcake and have white icing, so I must be vanilla," but Adrienne's cupcakes are moist and sweet and tasty and you can actually taste the vanilla in the icing and the cupcake. In fact, we didn't hold back and bought a couple of ginormous cupcakes on the way out, along with some cannoli and half-priced scones. If any of y'all are ever in the Louisville area, it's just across the bridge in Jeffersonville, and you're missing out.
After that pleasant repast, we went down on Main Street, where I'd always wanted to investigate but never had the time when I was abstracting. We meandered up and down, wandering in here and there; we found some really adorable things for X-chan, which I won't enumerate because I think she knows I live here on the Internet. (I don't know that she actually ever reads my journal, but better safe than sorry amirite.) We also went to Schimpff's Confectionary and Candy Museum. The flood levels are marked outside on the pillars that hold up the awning, and at first I was like, "there is no way the floods came up that high in 1884," until I saw an old picture from the '30s inside wherein the floodwater covered the globes of the street lamps. The candy museum is only a couple of rooms, but it's an interesting window into another time; they had a traveling salesman's demo kit from the first decade of the 20th century, candy still intact. (Hard candy doesn't rot; it just seems to get dull.) There was also a shitton of vintage candy tins, some from your well-known brands (Hershey's and Ghirardelli) and others less so (Everybody Loves A Dam Bar--a slogan which I am sure delighted children of yesteryear).
Schimpff's also has a demo area wherein you can see candy canes being made, which is kind of neat. Apparently, when we lived in Martinsville, there was a confectioner's that used to do the same thing around Christmas, and Mom and I would stop to watch the process. I was only two or three at the time, so I don't have any memory of this, which gave the lolmom a sad.
We had planned to go to the movies that night, but both of us were pretty tired (I got up early and lolmom didn't get much sleep in the car), so forbore and wound up crashing. I did finally get some sleep on Sunday night, and woke up Monday with a hideous swollen eye. A-feared that it was conjunctivitis, I called the optometrist's whilst trying not to panic, since, y'know, appearing at my new job with a hideous swollen monster eye is not exactly the first impression I want to make. My optometrist thinks it's not conjunctivitis, rather that I'm having an allergic reaction to something and there might be some bacterial activity going on. I have no idea WHAT I could be having a reaction to; I don't remember getting anything in my eye, and I haven't been wearing eye makeup since the last time I was afraid I had conjunctivitis (optometrist thinks it's unlikely to be a cosmetic allergy); we're very consistent with things like laundry detergent because lolmom has severe allergic reactions and so we can only use a few brands. Anyway, I got the good eyedrops so things seem to be clearing up.
Then it snowed yesterday and we're probably going to be precipitated upon tomorrow. God damn.
And that's really it. Three more days at the 'Mart, and then a weekend, and then Teh New Job. :D Hooray!