And breathe.
Posted by Tom on June 3, 2009 at 7:22 pm
So I admit I haven’t been good at keeping up with the blog for the past while. Almost all I could think about for a month or two was school, which lead to little-to-nothing blog-worthy. However, I’m done! The longest (and most tumultuous) school year I’ve ever faced is finished. At times it seemed like it would never end. Actually, since about January it felt like it would never end. But we made it through, and now it’s summer time! The days are getting warmer, the wind isn’t so chilly, York is empty and the UV index is steadily rising.
As a student, thoughts of summer all lead to one thing: a summer job. I’ve always been pretty nervous about finding summer jobs for some reason… maybe because I’m not very good at it. Last summer I lucked out and had a grant to work all summer, and I found out about that sometime in March. This year it was the end of May and I still didn’t know if I would be able to find anything. Everyone keeps talking about the “hard economic times” and “how difficult it is for students to get jobs these days”, so I was once again nervous about how the summer would pan out. Turns out I didn’t have much to worry about. I dropped off a resume at a Staples store nearby about two weeks ago, had an interview a couple of days later, and started work on Monday! There were a rediculous number of interviews and full background, credit and reference checks involved, but everything turned out okay.
I got hired as a “We’ll train you in everything so that you know how to do everything” kind of guy. I started out in the Copy Center on Monday morning, moved to the service desk later that day, and started some basic computers training last night. I’m enjoying learning everything, even though everyone there keeps saying I must be crazy to be able to absorb everything in such a short period. I guess I’m still partly in school mode where I’m expected to absorb ridiculous amounts of information in a very short time. I’m hoping that by learning everything I’ll be able to get a couple extra shifts that I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise, and maybe I’ll pick up some extra skills while I’m at it.
I’m enjoying the position so far, particularly because it’s a type of atmosphere I haven’t experienced before. The people are really interesting - like something out of a sitcom: the angsty and sometimes angry computer techs, the difficult to understand chinese cashier, the happy go lucky pale, red haired cashier, the kind-of Italian looking manager, the really tall (seriously, taller than me) lanky and balding manager, and the girl who works at the copy center who talks about her kids a lot. Those are the main characters, but there are a bunch of other associates who could serve as supporting characters when you needed them.
Oh, and this position is only part time at the moment, so I’m keeping my position with the York Federation of Students. That an extra ten hours a week, so hopefully I can eek out around thirty hours or so a week in total, which feels awesome.
In other news, the apartment is coming along nicely. I took some pictures yesterday which I will likely post here tomorrow. I had to rescue some plants today that Candice bought recently - they were slowly dying but after some water they seem to be coming around. Our landlord recently bought us some planters in the back “yard” that we can use to plant whatever we want, so these will likely make their way there soon.
Alright, I’m going out to take some pictures before the sun goes down and I lose the light.
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