No hospitality during an interview

In addition to my shitty outcome of the teaching gig, I had another interview. I applied online for a not named hotel chain for a low level management position. I actually was called by the corporate HR person and on the phone she told me the following:

• there were various positions open: guest services, marketing/sales, and in HR
• there are 6 hotels in my area and all of them have openings
• their goal is to place a person in the hotel closest to where a person lives, if possible
• the positions are mostly day shifts, mostly M-F, and mostly 8a-5p, though there will be occasional times of working evenings, weekends or holidays, depending on the position, but these times are rare
• I would be interviewing panel style with a member of the corporate marketing/ sales department, a corporate HR person (not the woman on the phone), and 1 or 2 hotel managers from the area. After the panel interview I could have individual interviews with any or all of these people.
• the positions pay between $10-14 per hour depending on the job
• all people will be hired at the interview, or will hear before the end of that day
  

Sounds great, right? I even took an entire day off since I had to drive 2 hours for the interview.

The reality, however, was this:

• the only position available was "guest services representative" which was primarily "front desk clerk"
• the only hotel with an opening was the one I was at
• the hotel with the opening is about a 25 minute drive from where I would be living
• the hours were day shift, second shift and third shift. It was all rotating so I wouldn't be working just one but maybe something like: Monday days, Tuesday and Wednesday on second shift, off on Thursdays and then third shift on Friday and Saturday and be off on Sunday. This would also not be a set schedule- it could change week to week, day to day. This is obviously NOT weekdays nor is it days. AND the woman who interviewed me said everyone works all holidays or is immediately discharged.
• I arrived and was introduced to 4 women and then the one who was a hotel manager took me to a supply closet with 2 chairs for an interview because she "didn't have any space elsewhere." Uhhhh, we're in a hotel and there was no room to convert into a meeting room???? And there was no panel interview at any time.
• it pays minimum wage
• I wasn't told either way if I was hired or not when I left
  

The woman who interviewed me was the manager at that hotel. She asked me typical interview questions and wrote down all my answer either word for word or she abbreviated. And she wrote in loopy, huge handwriting with neon orange pen. Just an observation.

She couldn't believe I had hours toward my master's degree but said it in that way where she wasn't impressed at all, but it came with a nose wrinkle and a look of disgust. Or jealousy.

She told me that it was a residential hotel with most clientele having an average stay of 7-15 days. Most clients were men ages 35-44 and she looked at my naked ring finger and emphasized it was NOT appropriate to fraternize at any time with guests. And then she arched her eyebrow at me. Well, gee if I can't screw the guests why would I want this gig?

She also said that every single person does laundry or cleans rooms daily and she doesn't want there to ever be "laundry drama". I'm not sure what that means. I mean, it's laundry. How much drama does laundry cause? She mentioned about 20 times during the 15 minute interview that she did not tolerate drama in her hotel. Uhhhh, okay.

AND she was the manager who worked 365/24/7 and expects no less from her small team of staff.

She briefly mentioned that there are benefits but none of them are available until the 6 month mark, but PTO starts accruing on day one, but can't use it for 6 months.

She then sent me on my way and told me if I was going to be hired I would know by Friday.

Uh, no. In no way would I want to work for this organization. At all. Ever. No.

Nor will I stay at this hotel. At all. Ever. No.

Not the best exposure to the hospitality industry.

Mags

A job is a job is a job...an interview is an interview is an... oh whatever!

Yesterday I interviewed at my school for an opening as an English teacher. I still don't have a license in my state but since I'm supposed to go to school and take those 6 hours to have my teacher certificate by Christmas, I was a perfect candidate.

My principal said he was going to do "due diligence"- he wanted to interview everyone and follow all the proper protocols so he could pitch to our Superintendent that everyone wanted me for the job.

So I interviewed with him as well as the other 3 core teachers with whom I'd be working with daily. I did pretty well in the interview- my principal told me later I did very well and stayed true to what I believed and presented well to the committee.

I was going to know by tomorrow if I got the job.

My principal called me tonight and I didn't get the job. The Super said she will NOT get an emergency certificate for anyone if there is a qualified candidate. She will not me a break. My principal felt like crap but it was the way it was. He said he really wants to see me get a certificate and he and the committee found a way to get a job as soon as I was certified and as soon as one was open.

I dunno.

It's disappointing. even an old principal called the Super on my behalf to no avail. I've worked for this woman for 3 years and can't catch a break. Apparently, she told my principal she would love to see me teach but I need to prove I want it by getting my certificate.

It must be nice for her to sit and make these rules and choices. She makes about $70k a year; she can say that but she must not care nor realize that to go to school I need money but to have enough money I need a job. Catch-22.

Shot down again.

I could bitch and moan but it doesn't matter anymore.

Maggie

Bo-ING!

A few weeks ago I did the coolest thing: jumped on a trampoline. Yeah, that doesn't sound like a big deal, I realize, but it wasn't your average jump on a trampoline in someone's back yard. It was a HUGE trampoline extravaganza!

There's a place that has an indoor trampoline park. That's right- a trampoline PARK! You pay to jump, you get special jumping shoes and then can go to town. There's a big section that just for jumping. The floor and walls are trampolines. You can just jump up and down or bounce off the walls. You can run up the walls and then bounce back onto the floor. You can do twists, turns and somersaults. Or just bounce.

Then there's a dodge ball section. The floor and walls are trampolines and they have a special ball. You can wait in line to play a game of dodge ball. There's also a referee to moderate so it doesn't get out of hand or control.

There's a section that's a giant foam pit. You can trampoline up and down and then bounce right into the foam pit. Or do a flip into the foam pit.

There's a toddler area of walled and floored trampolines so they don't get trampled by the kids and adults in the other areas.

There's also a basketball area where you can bounce and then slam dunk or do flips and turn as you put the ball in the hoop. It's not a place to play a b-ball game, but to do tricks to get the basket.

I want to say right up front, as a 40 year old woman, I did NOT play dodge ball or basket ball. I really would've felt more at home in the toddle area, really. I also didn't do the foam pit. I was in line to do the foam pit and it looked like fun but my big fear was GETTING OUT of the foam pit. I didn't want the trampoline monitor to stop all jumping to come get the fat old lady out. You had to crawl. There was not a ladder. I would've been screwed. I did watch people do it and it was cool looking. I also watched dodge ball, which gave me elementary school nightmare flashbacks, so I didn't play, obviously. It looked vicious and like they were out of dodge ball blood.

I just was in the normal trampoline jumping room. I didn't try and flips or anything because I didn't want to break my neck or have a heart attack. First, I have no health insurance and second, I did NOT want to have to explain what I was doing that landed me in a hospital. It was still fun, to just bounce up and down. I did jump and fall to my butt or knees. That was fun. And it was fun to watch all these kids do flips and huge bounces like they were flying.

Also, the other that was cool was the work out. I was breathless and sweaty after 10 minutes of bouncing. I swear it was the best cardio workout I've ever had. It's a huge work out on the legs. I paid to bounce for 30 minutes and thought I was going to die before my time was up. I did stop and take a little break on a bench and I looked around and realized that most parents were sitting, and most of those were my age. Oh there were adult who were jumping but they were probably in better shape than I was. But I didn't care- I had a great time and it was so much fun!

If there's an indoor trampoline park near you, I highly recommend going. It's a great workout, tons of fun, and a great way to get in touch with your inner child!

Mags

The August snowday that wasn't

The power went out at school the other day, right after lunch. It was a great day- warm, sunny, blue skies, fluffy clouds, just a very light breeze-- certainly not a bad weather day that would knock out power.

We thought it might be a quick off and off thing but a few minutes led to a few more which led to about 30 minutes and so on...

And the really weird thing is how the building was out. My library had one row of lights ON and all my student computers worked but the rest of it- all off. Some rooms had no power, no computers, no 'net. A few rooms had computers but no lights and no 'net. Some had computers and 'net but no lights, etc... you see the weird pattern here, right?

Finally we had to take all our students to the chapel. The school was without power and about half of the other buildings on campus had some various form of power outage as well.

Because of the state mandates and such, we couldn't send the kids back to their residence halls until we had enough school hours to count a full day or we would have to make up a half day. We hung with the kids in the chapel and they watched an educational movie and then we dismissed about 30 minutes early.

We were told that some underground lines had an issue. One of the lines is about 40 years old and it just died completely so the electric company was going to have to dig it all up and then put in a new one. And it was going to have to be dug from the road to the electric pole and transformer about a half a mile away. The power company said it would take 2-3 days, approximately. It happened on a Wednesday so we were told to be at school the next day unless we received a call or text from the principal.

But it looked like a snow day in August! And that would also give us a 4 day weekend, since we don't have school on Fridays!

But the snow day gods weren't on our side, probably because it's August in the Midwest and typically 85 degrees outside.

The principal let us all know we would have school, business as usual. It seems that the power company put a crew on who worked around the clock and gee, they got it done in time for us to have school.

Feh.

But really, it's not that big of a deal because I wouldn't want to have to make up a missed day in August. The thing that usually sucks, though, is that we don't usually get snow days since our kids live on campus. No buses just walking so usually no reason for a snow day, unless the county or state calls a road emergency.

We had school just like normal.

And no snow.

Mags

Diet week 17

Part of me wants to give up because being fat isn't so bad...

Diet week 16

I'm avoiding scales.

I'm still suffering from eating my way through July!

Random rantings

The other night I was writing a blog post with my laptop open on my lap, and one head phone plugged into his MP3 player. My phone beeped so I read the text and looked at Tweets. There was a Tweet about a book I wanted so I grabbed my Nook to order it directly on my device because it's easier to do. My boyfriend was teasing me, asking me if I wanted another piece of technology since it didn't appear that I had enough in my lap all at once.

If a place offers "Free Wi-Fi" then why is a password required? And when inquiring about the password, no one who works there knows what it is?

I wish people would do their damn jobs. We get 15 copies of two different newspapers at our school every day for student use. These are free to our school and to our students. I called and talked to the person in charge of the program to tell her we would be on a July break for 3 weeks. I've worked with this woman lots of times before. I gave her the dates that we wouldn't need delivery. She took all the info; this woman is usually on top of stuff, never giving me the brush off and is always prompt in returning my calls, and is usually very helpful. So I told her we didn't need papers for three weeks and I thought we were good. Until I got back to school this week and learned from the janitors that the papers were delivered every single day for the entire 3 weeks and they had to be recycled, or worse, trashed. I was so irritated. I hate all that waste!

I am totally jonsing for an iPad. I want one so badly!

Right now dieting is so hard. I've done it for how many weeks yet right now I just want to eat scores of junk! I need MORE will-power! I keep telling myself that nothing tastes as good as thin feels but... I want Lemoncelo cake.

I have no tolerance for stupid people and those who don't do their fricking jobs.

So many good books are out right now that I can hardly stand it! And to top it off, there are about 50 movies coming out between now and Christmas that I want to see. I need to just be able to stay home and do nothing but go to the movies and read. I should be paid for that. i keep sayin'!

I applied for a job yesterday, out of town and out of education. I have no idea what I'm thinking except that it's not here and not dealing with kids.

Mags

Busy bee

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, I realize this. I really do. For the longest time, I felt like I didn't have anything to blog about so I decided to make a conscious effort to write down anything that COULD be made into a blog post and see what happens. Furthermore, I felt my Muse kick in for awhile and I was writing. i also vowed to write every day so I even "back posted" (aka cheated) so I had posts every day.

The ideas started flowing and I have a huge list of stuff I want to write about. Yay- I was "feeling" the writing bug, which I know is part of it.

But then I got busy. REALLY busy. Last week, I had something going on every single day after school until late into the evening. Most of it was of my own doing, but by the time I got home I was just ready to fall asleep or my brain was so mushy I couldn't focus on writing anything of quality and I didn't want to a) waste a good topic and make it crummy; or 2) just post crap so I can say I posted daily.

Then last weekend I had "time", sort of. Sometimes it's mind over matter, ya know? I had a really good book to read, and the first day I had all week to relax was Saturday afternoon so I did nothing but read. My brain was on vacation and I didn't even touch my laptop all day long. Sunday, when I thought I was going to write, I ended up being gone all day. It was FUN- XRayGirl and I went shopping, out for a late lunch and we got pedicures! Yahoo- us! I love me some GF time. (and last week I hung with Lilith, got a haircut, helped Mac with some work stuff, sort of babysat for a friend's kiddo, went to a baseball game, went rummage saling with Curly, graded papers in preparation for student teaching, and spend an evening with Girl- and see all the potential blog stuff here? And all the stuff you're missing and need updated on?)

Then I was back at in again on Monday with the crazy schedule!

So, here it is: I'm not back posting the days I missed (expect a diet update, which I do more for me, than you!) Here is a post today. And if all goes according to Hoyle, I shall have a post every few days, if not daily, for the next several... years!

Whew!
Mags

Diet week 15

I keep forgetting to weigh myself.

I hate dieting. I'm just tired and cranky with life which is making it hard to diet but I still am.

I ate junk over my 3 week break and it's so hard to "get back on the wagon."

I keep telling myself that nothing tastes as good as thin feels.

I can't believe I need to lose 30 more pounds.

I feel really fat today. And bloated.

End of diet whine because I know this is my own doing!

Diet week 14

Dieting sucks.

Password musings

What do I do about passwords?

I wonder if I died how do my family and friends take care of all my online stuff? I was thinking maybe I should make a notebook of passwords and then hide it in the fireproof safe so no one could have it. All my important papers are there already so if something happened to me, people would be able to access all my stuff and shut things down, stop payments and the like.

Is having all that stuff written down, floating around out there a good thing?

I just read a book where the murdered characters (yes, I realize it's fiction but the point I want to make is actually applicable, regardless of fact or fiction) have a computer file called "passwords" and the police techies are making fun of them for doing that. Well, OK. Seemed like a good idea to me. However, the big problem is that someone would need to know my computer password to access the file called passwords, if I had something like that. Unless, of course, I was murdered and then the PD techies could share the info with my family.

Anyway, more realistically, what do I do? I'm a single person who relishes her privacy so what do I do about passwords? I have a few email accounts, blogger, Barnes and Noble, my banking, my mobile service... just tons of stuff that someone would need to shut down if I were dead, and would need passwords to do it.

Does anyone else have a thought on this? Maybe I'm just crazy with too much time on my hands to be thinking of stuff like this...

Mags

Train Ride

While I'm not someone who is a frequent concert goer, I've had the chance to see 2 concerts in just one week, which is pretty damn cool is you ask me!

Last night I saw Train and is was fabulous! My seat was amazing, less than 200 feet from the stage! I loved every single minute of the night. The music was great, the seats were great, the crowd was great! It was one of the best shows I've been to in years. I had so much fun and was so impressed with the show they put on.

The down side is that not one single picture I took with my cell camera turned out. Yeah.

But it was still an amazing night. They sand a ton of stuff from the California 37 album, of course, and then lots of their other hits like "Meet Virginia", "Hey Soul Sister", "Marry Me",and "Drops of Jupiter", just to name a few. And one thing that was completely awesome was their own medley of songs. that's right, they did a medley of their own music. You know how you go to a concert and you know the band can't sing ever single hit they've had or the concert would last about 9 hours? Well, Train made a medley of some of their older hits and sang that, flashing the album cover on a giant screen behind them on stage so the audience knew what album it was from. I thought that was pretty cool, so I think they managed to sing every single hit song, as well as every single popular sing they ever had, as well as 7 songs of he newest album, California 37.





One thing that's super cool is that one of the songs on the new album "Bruises" is a duet and the lead singer Twitters and gets a woman (or group) of women to sing it with him during the concert. No, I wasn't the lucky winner (OMG I Wish!) and this isn't the footage from our concert- it's not on the web yet- but it's from another concert and is a totally great song:





And of course some guy in the the audience proposed to some girl and she said yes, during the beautiful love song "Marry Me" which I have to admit it completely romantic and just about perfect. And the lead singer knew and told the audience and the woman was screaming and crying- not sure if it's was because she was proposed to or because Pat Monahan (lead singer) talked to her from stage...



Hope you enjoyed the videos! Now got get California 37! It's the best! Or get tickets!

Loved it!
Mags

Technology freak out

I go see a guy that I'm going to refer to as my boyfriend from now on and there will be an upcoming post about him, but for the sake of this post, he's Boyfriend. Anyway I go see him almost every weekend since he lives about 2 hours from me. I have to pack a bag with shoes and clothes, mostly.

Notice I say mostly. I do leave some stuff at his place like magazines, books, shampoo, a razor, bathroom type stuff. I think I have a shirt, a pair of emergency flip-flops there, and some undies. I leave candles to burn or pictures. Just stuff, and he doesn't care. So each time I go, I do have to pack a bag with some basic clothes.

And other stuff. Mostly clothes.

I find I have to pack a giant dang suitcase because of my electronics. I am not kidding. I mean, I was completely excited when I got a haircut and didn't need to lug a straightener and a hairdryer anymore. And when he didn't care I left toiletries and books, I was thrilled. I have a Nook so I don't have to pack 4 or 5 books at a time since I have that many (or more) with me all the time. No what I do have to pack and that requires a suitcase is all the technology.

Sometimes I take my laptop. I don't have to but maybe I have job stuff I want to do, or I want to use his printer and I just use my laptop. Sometimes I just want MY laptop not his computer. SO I have that plus the power cord in case the battery dies.

I have to have my Nook charger cord. No explanation needed, I'm sure.

I have to have a phone charger.

Sometimes, when it works, I have my iPod. And headphones. And that charger.

I need to make sure I have my car charger for my phone because when I drive around his city on my own, I sometimes get lost and need the GPS feature which sucks the batter life of my Android pretty quickly.

I always said I would never be a slave to technology; apparently I am a liar!

And the one item on this entire list that freaks me out the most if I forget it? My Nook charger. I about have kittens. Once I forgot it and spent 2 hours at a Barnes and Noble borrowing one of the chargers there because I was afraid it would die and I would have nothing to read. So I then had to buy a paper book to leave at his house. Then we went to a Half Price Books and I bought a stack of magazines and about 6 novels to leave there, just in case it happened again. But maybe that's a story for another post... Pardon me, I digress.

Yes, technology. It increases my suitcase. I have more cords than shoes in my overnight bag, and that's sayin' something!

Mags

8 reasons why Maggie is mad

I'm having one of those times where I'm all pissed off and irritated, mostly for no good reasons or for very good reasons but they all hit me at one time.

1. I hate it when Mac calls me and tell me something wonderful and then follows it up immediately with, "but we have a problem." First, WE do not have a problem- HE has a problem. It's not my fault his mobile phone doesn't work or that he's worried about passing a drug test or that he doesn't have any money for cigs or whatever. And why can't he ever just tell me something good without there being some fucking dramatic pause and then something bad?

2. And I hate it when people do not return phone calls in a timely manner, especially if someone SAYS on the message that it's important. How hard is it to call back soon when someone says, "We have an important issue and really need your help." Do I need to scream hysterically into the phone and beg for 911 like help?

3. It also just flat out makes me mad when people play dumb. They know what they did and they screwed up and then fake like nothing is wrong and are just "stunned" when they find out someone is angry at them.

4. And I wish people would take responsibility for their words and actions. If you are stupid and hurtful, admit it and apologize. Do not play some game about how it "did seem so bad" and say "well, I can't believe you're upset over that".

5. Hypocrites are also the worst. Really? You tell me to do one thing, get pissed when I don't, and then do the opposite and then get mad at me when I call you out for being a hypocrite, thus reverting to item 4. And the person who's being the hypocrite them gets mad at being called out. Stupid imbeciles. I am not in therw rong so don't try to make me feel like I am. Admit wrong doing, apologize, and move the hell on.

6. I'm also frustrated with my own self for getting mad at things that just affect me peripherally but it still makes me mad. The photographer I work for sold the camera I always use when I work for her so I guess I'm out of the photographer business until I get my own. It doesn't REALLY matter but it does. Maybe it's just because today I'm in a bad mood about all the other stuff.

7. Religion is not a trump card. It's about grace and faith and kindness, not about making people feel bad or using it to prove a point like a weapon is wrong.

8. Rude people suck.

Tough love

Mac's life had been falling apart since last October. He got kicked out of school. He came home and I laid down the law. He went to see a therapist, which didn't do a lot of good. He refused to see a medical doctor to get any sort of prescription like Prozac to help him.

He enrolled at a local community college and got a part time job. He seemed to be okay for a bit.

Then he lost the job. He did shitty at school.

At the beginning of summer, he thought about joining the military. He applied for a few jobs. He basically went into hiding from his family and stayed with his friends for days on end, coming home in the middle of the night to shower and grab some food.

About a month ago, now, he moved out and in with friends. Things here were tense and I just said here are the rules, follow them is one choice or move out is the other choice. He moved out.

It didn't go well. Things for him went from bad to worse and since he still didn't find a job it was sucky. He got into a fight with the roommates and after he slept in the park for a night, he finally called hi sperm donor for help.

And that $%!&*(%(@# Sperm Donor jerk didn't do anything. He listened to Mac and lectured him for several hours and heaped a bunch of guilt on him. Then he told him he could couldn't stay with his family since he was such a mess.

So Daddy-O and I let him come back. Mac knows this is the last time. So...

Yesterday Mac is I could give him a ride. I drove him to about 25 places to pick up applications. Today he filled out about 20 of them while I was at school and then after school I drove him back to turn them all in. I was amazed at the progress! And it garnered him an interview as the local Pizza Hut.

His plan for today is to follow a lead on a factory job which has about 4 steps to even get the interview. And he's going to finish the rest of the the paper apps and I'm going to give him a ride to drop those off. And he said he wants to do some laundry. This is all his plan and his progress.

Tomorrow he's going to a local job placement agency and has his interview.

He has about 15 places online he's going to apply for over the weekend. And on Monday he said he's going to call all the places he's applied this week.

This is his plan. I hope he follows through. Because I don't want to have to follow through if he gives up.

He seems to really want to change and he really, really wants a job. I wish I had a connection to hook him up with a position just so he could have a chance but I don't. But I appreciate he's really trying. And I really hope something comes out of all his efforts. I don't know how long he's going to be able to hold onto the threat of hope that he'll get a job.

By the way, if any of you want to take a chance on a kid and have a legit offer, I'll make sure he gets there and he will work his ass off.

Parenting is hard.
Mags

The first time

I've been able to do a lot of reading this summer, more than usual. Obviously summer vacation has allowed me time to wallow in a pile of books.

But I have a problem, which then turns into several problems. Only bibliophiles has issues such as this one.

What happens when you love an author and have read all their books and there are no more? I know I have to just wait for another one but when there some serious author- reader loving happening, waiting just sucks. I bought, for example, Sacre' Bleu by Christopher Moore. I pre-ordered it and it was on my Nook when I woke up. It was released on April 3. I just read it last week. I kept prolonging reading it because I've read all the Christopher Moore books and I hate waiting for another one. I couldn't stand it any more (or Moore?) and just had to read it; the suspense was killing me!

I've done the same thing with other books in the past. I buy them or borrow them and then just hang on to them, holding out to read while I anticipate the next one. Some authors I like quite a bit so I read them when I can and am content for the next one, but some authors, I go a little crazy: Christopher Moore, Janet Evanovich, Susan Whittig Albert, Jodi Picoult (had 2 out this year!), Greg Iles (finally his new one comes in December!), Nicholas Evans... I get these books ASAP and then I carry them around, savoring the fact I could read it if I want.

I realize I could re-read books by my favorite author. Re-reading to me is like trying to recreate a first kiss- it just can't be done. No matter who great and exciting, engaging, wonderful a book it the first time I read it, I can never get that sort of magic again. I do re-read books, but it better be damn good if I'm willing to give up time to do that. I also want to say that life is way to short to read books- this is how I feel most of the time. I have about 350+ books on my to read list and it's not complete. There is only so much time left in the world for me and I don't usually want to re-read something where there are so many new authors for me to fall in love with, to experience, to... 'kiss'. So I don't often re-read.

And then there are books that have just disappeared. Michael Allegretto hasn't written a book in years but I can't seem to figure out if he died or not. And RIP to Maeve Binchy... ah those at the Scarlet Feather and Quinton's... I shall miss them. And there was a character called Callahan Garrity written by Kathy Hogan Trocheck- she wrote 7 and then no more. It just pains me!

So I wait. I want for Evanovich's 19 in the Plum series. I wait to see if Evans will ever write a new one again. I have to wait at least a year or even more for more Moore, and Picoult. I have to just try to be patient for December for Iles.

And maybe go re-read turning Angel or Fool to get my through...

Mags