Had a good band practice with Ken and John last night. It's the first time we've played together since John's surgery. He looks pretty damn good for a guy who's had a big chunk of his face taken off. He showed us photos of the surgery. Man, they cut a big ol' hole in his cheek and jaw. The scars will mostly be hidden in his beard.
It was a fun night. The three of us are sounding pretty good. The vocals are strong, especially on Tell Him.
We're going to hold off on making an offer on the house. We're going to submit a letter stating our interest and ask the seller if they'll let us know if someone makes an offer that they're considering. We may come up with a better one. In the meantime I'll keep looking. Still, I'd love to get this house.
Yesterday I called Michael's to see if Tracie has gotten back from vacation and if she's seen the samples I left for her. The woman I left them with never told her about them (grrr...). She left the phone to go get them. I could hear her on the way back saying, "Oh these are sooo CUTE!" I'm going there today to fill out paperwork so I can start. Yay!
This morning I went to Ramona to work on painting a big prop piece for the band's field show. It's raining so that will have to wait. On the way home I saw two people standing over a small dog that was laying by the side of the street. The dog had been hit by a car and was still alive. I turned around and went back to see if I could help. Poor thing was laying on the cold, wet street struggling to breathe. I got a box out of the back of my car and we moved him onto it and lifted him up to the sidewalk. The young man who had stopped covered the dog with his under shirt and the woman ran home, grabbed a towel and covered the dog with it. While she was home she called animal control. We all stood around and waited. The dog lived for about 20 minutes and then died. Poor little dude. We waited a little longer for animal control but they were just taking too long. The man (his name was Damon) had been walking to work when he came upon the dog. I gave him a ride to work and then came home. As I drove back past the dog I saw the animal control truck. That guy's going to find a little red dog laying on a flattened box covered with a tank shirt and a towel.
It was kind of a weird scene. The woman was very nice but she kept patting the dog as it was convulsing and saying, "It's ok, baby. Just go to heaven. You're already there. You can meet my Poppa and he'll take you for a walk." Damon and I just looked at each other like, whoa, this is a little nuts. I was wondering if the dog was thinking, "Jeez, lady, I'm dyin' here. Leave me the hell alone!"
Ok. I guess I'll see what I can get done before I leave to go to Michael's. It's raining. What a nice sound.
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Wow, what an afternoon! I went to Michael's to meet with Tracie and fill out the paperwork. She took me into the smaller classroom and said, "I don't know if I should tell you this. I mean, ignorance is bliss, right?" I said, "Ok, now you HAVE to tell me." She showed me one of the papers she was holding. It was the results of that psychological test I took. I FAILED! It said I was not eligible for hire because I was weak in the areas of competitiveness, work attitude, customer service and communication. WTF??? Ok, so I know I'm not competitive but the last three? I EXCELL at that shit!
She also thought it was way off. She said she was going to bypass that part of the process and hire me anyway. She said she had gotten a really good feeling about me when we first met. And when she saw my samples and my instruction booklet she knew I'd be great in this job.
I filled out some paperwork (kind of a lot for a retail job, in my opinion) and then she showed me around. We actually spent the afternoon together chatting about all kinds of stuff. I told her about Jim and Rancho Curioso. She told me about her marriage and what a tough year it's been for her because she went back to school. She actually started to tear up which of course set me off because I had just been talking about Jim. That was pretty funny. Two women who barely know each other getting weepy on the sales floor at Michael's. We both made a bee line for the back room. I've never shared so much information so fast with someone whom I had just met AND she's my new boss! But I took my cues from her. It was a very friendly and comfortable afternoon.
I'm going to start by doing some in-store demos next Saturday. The following Wednesday will be my first class. I'll be doing classes every Wednesday and Saturday through October. That'll be the paper twist skeleton. I also have an idea for making a spooky mirror frame which will probably be my second class. I can get that one on the schedule once I get it worked up.
I'll also be learning how to present some of the Michael's classes. Like how to make greeting cards using Martha Stewart craft supplies. That's cool because all the prep work is done. I just have to present it.
I told Tracie about my idea of starting a blog for my Michael's classes. She thought it was a good idea so tonight I worked on that. Having a little trouble with Blogger. It's mixing things up between my blogs. I had to delete some stuff. I'll work on it more later.
Tomorrow Jeff and Bill are coming over to rehearse some songs for next Sunday. We're doing a little show for the old people at Eden Lutheran.
Man, I'm tired.
Ok, so here is a rant: Michaels is horrible with customer service. Nobody ever knows where anything is and basically tells you: It's over there and waves in a vague manner over their shoulder. Evidently they each have sections that they stock. If what you ask for isn't in their section they have no clue what it is that you're asking for.
Once I asked for plaster of paris to make a mold. Had no idea where it was much less why I'd use plaster to make a mold. I found it myself by the polymer clay.
Another time I stood in the bead aisle while 2 employees bitched about their jobs while they stood right next to me.
Just those couple of examples show that those employees failed the customer test.
It's hilarious to me that you've got the comfort and communication with your new boss when you've failed the psychological test. How weird is that?
Good thing you have a boss that cuts thru the bullshit. Sounds like it will be a fun job & you get in there and show them.
vivage: exactly. If that test selects for the kind of employees I see when I go to Michael's, then Donita should be thrilled she failed it.
zoret--the dissonance between the reality and the results of a test.
("zoret" was too good, I had to post again.)
--dean
Yes, I'm glad Tracie was able to cut through the bullshit. I'm also glad that I met her the way I did, instead of through the normal application and interview process.
Almost every time I've been to Michael's I've had bad customer service. Yesterday I took a good look. I'd say one woman out of five working the registers was actually doing her job. The rest were slow, badly dressed (they do have a dress code) and barely interacted with customers. Once I'm there a while I want to see if I can make some kind of difference in all that. I'll have to get to know the manager before I can start gently commenting (bitching) about the behavior of the staff.
It's funny. One day when I was in there the manager was just finishing up a meeting with a couple of corporate guys. I heard one of them say, "Good job! This store gets an A+. Everything looks really good". And yes, the store always looks good. Just avert your eyes from the humorless trogs on the sales floor.
Yes, I'm happy I failed it. I think it's funny that I showed up weak in my strongest areas. It did say I'm low risk for thievery and drug use so, I guess I'm ok there. Heh!
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