meeting

Wednesday our district had a meeting. Actually, two meetings...one for the store managers, and one right after for the EXA's.

At the meeting, we were told that effective September 15th, our pay would be converted to hourly.
Now this should be good news, right? I should be happy. But I'm not.

Pros:
-With the hours I normally work, this would be a HUGE raise
-Holiday pay
-No change in status, management tree remains the same

Cons:
-With the change, they won't want to pay OT so I won't be working so many hours and therefore no HUGE raise.
-Back in the holiday rotation
-No more 2 weekends/month off...granted those were few and far between anyway, but now I'm married to a 5.5 day/week schedule.
-We lose our yearly bonus...well, not exactly. It gets spread out over the full year. Sounds good, right? That's the base bonus. If you're in a store that does well, you get a percentage of the profits as well. That part's gone too.

So what's the deal? Who knows. Maybe a couple of weeks from now I'll feel better about it, but not just yet. We'll see what happens.

what I did yesterday

I drove to Marin, something I hadn't done in a while. Basically, since I moved to this side of the Bay. When I lived on the Peninsula (and was single with free time) I would drive out to the Headlands and just go walking. It was one of my favorite things to do. That and walking along the Great Highway, from Sloat all the way up to the Cliff House and back...and that was pre-IPod too.


Turns out that I'm a pretty sucky navigator. I didn't bother getting directions, since I'd been there so often. Also, having taken the route to San Rafael before on my trip to Fortuna, I figured it'd basically be the same to Marin, just turn left instead of right. Wrong. A "blink and you'll miss it" exit sign is what I missed, and that cost me about a half-hour trying to circle back to get to where I needed to go.

By the time I got to Marin, it was almost 330. During the morning I was checking my email to see if there would be softball practice, and it seemed like a no-go so the late arrival didn't bother me too much. But then two people responded with messages. DOH. So I went straight to the tourist spot in the Headlands, parked the car and waited for the fog I knew from experience would be coming in soon.

I was not to be disappointed. The rolling blanket crept in slowly from the west, oozing gently into the Bay. Oddly, the fingers went around the South Tower of the bridge, but for the most part, not in front through the midspan. By now, the wind was whistling in through the Gate...below I could see kiteboarders just to the west of the bridge, catching air and touching back down and I distinctly recall thinking "cool..." and "those guys are f---ing nuts!" at the same time.

After driving out, I decided that I'd waited too long to come back. Next time I'll make sure to drive out to the old lighthouse with my camera(s) and just sit. Read. Take pictures. And enjoy the serenity. It's nice.

Softball practice went ok. Didn't really do anything to help me tonight though. We all went to watch another game at Orange, the old Disco Inferno stomping grounds, which I ended up getting one at-bat in. And scrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-ubbbbbbbbbbed. That was one for the books, too. Swung at the first pitch, two-hopper to short so I know I have to hurry. Digging out of the box, a quarter of the way up the line, SPLAT. No rumblin', stumblin', bumblin', just SPLAT. Nice. Very graceful.

Tonight's game was odd. We came out really flat. No energy. Just kind of bleah. And the scoreboard at the end of the game reflected it...13-5, LOSE-AHH.

There's always next week. At least for them, I can't play. I have to work =(

hmmm.

It occurred to me recently that I say that a lot. "hmmm." Don't know why.

So it's now 110am, and I can't sleep...which is why I'm typing away. Let's see. What am I going to write about?

Hmmm.

A bunch of my very lucky friends just came back from a Yosemite trip they took this weekend. I have yet to hear details, but from what I hear fun was had...not surprisingly...and everyone made it home safe and sound. I await the photos that I am sure are forthcoming, as I am certain they will be very, very good. Originally I had planned to go this coming weekend, Labor Day weekend, to make my pilgrimage to what my Mom always called "God's Country"...but a serious lack of reasonably priced accommodations anywhere near the park put the whammy on that. So now I have planned a trip three weeks hence...on the 19th-21st of September. I have already begun my preparations and cannot WAIT.

The 19th also marks an important day for me...the start of almost three weeks off from work. I SO need this time to recharge. Work has been a complete grind basically since I was transferred out of my old store in Berkeley in June 06 to Oakland. For different reasons, though. With that store, my manager and I never really saw eye-to-eye...which made things harder than perhaps they should have been. With this store, I like everything about it...except that I have to drive 42 miles to get there everyday. It basically costs me $300 a month EXTRA to work at my current store than it did to work at the Oakland store. And that's a pocketbook ouch that I don't get reimbursed for, either.

Now I'm trying to figure out what to do on my day off. Climbing and exercising is part of it. I just don't know what to do with the rest. Golf? Softball practice? Or maybe I'll just come home and rest. That might work too. Lord knows I could use it...not so much physically, but mentally. I'm fried, as they say. Never mind, I got it. I know what I'm doing today. I'll tell you when I get back home.

Party!

I now welcome myself to the land of Blogger. More to come for the one or two people who may read this stuff.

So party at BG & Tisza's...
Gotta like that. Dual-purpose get-together...Mary-Anne birthday cake (and don't get me started on the ice cream cake; knowing it was from Baskin Robbins should be enough to determine its mint chocolate chip goodness) and just an excuse to have the gang together.

I learned a few things at this shindig. 1) I REALLY suck at Pictionary. Ok as a "guesser", but wow do I suck as a "drawer". 2) Tisza's garlic noodles: spicy, but GOOOOOOOOOOOOD. 3) Board games are fun. CatchPhrase at 3am brings new meaning to the term "Quiet Riot". Laughter stifled as we tried mostly in vain to avoid making too much noise. Hilarious!