When Life Gives You Bills You Get a Second Job

Yup, I now currently work two jobs ... thus the reason I hardly post here (hardly meaning never haha). I applied for the Idaho Falls Public Library around September thinking I would never work there. I have no experience, haven't lived in the city much, and it had been a few months since I heard from anyone.

Funny how things work. I got a call close to Christmas time asking if I would like to show up the following Monday for an interview. I called them back (having gotten the message during a break from Sam's), and left a message saying I would be there.

I showed up in black jeans and a nice shirt. I had to run from Sam's to there and I don't (or didn't) own any nice pants. They shook my hand and asked the typical questions "What will you bring for the company ... How do you work with others ... How many light fixtures do you think are in the building? ... etc." I was perfectly honest with them, not thinking it would go anywhere. They asked if I didn't finish my job for the night how would I feel. I told them pretty good if I got a big chunk of it done. I can always come back tomorrow and get the rest done. Lazy in my opinion, but honest.

They called back the very next day and offered me the job. I was in shock really. Now I work at the library in the morning, and Sam's at night having one day off every month and a half, and it being on a Sunday (it's my day off today yay!). Having two jobs is hard, I can work 14 hour days if I have to close on a Saturday at Sam's, but we have to do hard things in life sometimes.

I have read several books since starting there, some of which were very dumb, and couple not so bad ones. Anna and the French Kiss is a good one, YA about a girl who spends her senior year of high school in an American school in the middle of France. The author is a budding artist and I found her book a quick easy read, and very light and entertaining.

When I do get days off (being Sundays) and I can't really get out and shop I find myself wandering my apartment, exploring. Here are some friendly faces:


Don't get the washer, plug in, and picture? They look like faces to me ... Happy, surprised, and crazy. Yup ... that's what I do with my free time :p

There's a reason it's called BLACK Friday

I was scheduled to work the 5am shift at Sam's Club this morning. My first real Black Friday. I had never shopped for them, didn't find anything I really needed to be up before the crack of dawn. Who does that?

A lot of people I tell you. But most of them sleep in till noon.

3:40am I got out of bed, showered, ate breakfast (Thanksgiving left overs, something everyone is thankful for!), and left for work. I snuck in the backdoor around 4:40am and got the run down on the sales for the registers. We didn't really know what was going on with the floor sales, I didn't even notice any differences. When a member would bring something up and say "Wow! It's only 45 dollars!" I would nod and smile like I knew all along.

People were lined up outside, and then the doors opened and they all lined up at the member service desk. The cashiers just stood there. I didn't get my first member till around 5:20am. They all bought electronics.

I was chipper, selling Plus memberships for a 25 dollar gift card, until around 7. The store died. Members were shopping for the normal stuff, and they weren't in a rush to get out the door, so I had no one. I started falling asleep. I had to walk in circles, pat my cheeks, clap my hands. It is very possible to fall asleep on your feet, mid conversation even. I didn't want to go on breaks, I didn't want to go home. I was happy to be working and making Plus membership sales.

It didn't get busy in the store till around 12. And it wasn't just busy it was super busy, lines all the way down, every register open. Busy. I couldn't get to my break without someone stopping me and asking where something was.

Finally, 1 hour after my shift ended they kicked me off a register and told me to go home. I did reluctantly. I get to go in tomorrow, but it will be at 2, so i won't make as many sales. We don't sell that many in the afternoon.

Overall it was a crazy day, full of laughs, patience testing, sales, and shouting (my voice is tired tonight, it is cracking). Can't wait till tomorrow. Sales at Sam's don't last a day, they last a weekend. Wish me luck!

P.S. The ice started melting today, we have road again!

The Big Move

This is going to be a big picture/movie post so be prepared. I took pictures of every room in the apartment (except Amanda's).

First lets start off with how Gus is handling the whole thing. Below are a couple videos of our trip to Idaho Falls. You can see how well he took it:

This is how he is now:

Relaxed, fat, and happy.

Now for some pictures of the apartment! (caption below the image)

Staircase leading downstairs/view from my room

My room from the hallway.

Bathroom from the hallway.

Staircase/first thing you see when you walk through the front door. You see this and to the right the hallway to the living room.

Hallway from the living room to the front door. We keep our shoes there ^_^.

Kitchen, it looks small but it isn't half bad.

The living room, Amanda is putting a puzzle together. We keep dvd's on that bookshelf for now. They will be moved into the white hatch when it is fixed. Just waiting for Amanda's brother to come back with all the parts.

My closet, it is huge, and super messy. Surprising how messy you can get when you just move in.

Other side of my closet.

My computer desk. I just pack the whole thing like it was at my parents and moved it here. Tyson said I didn't move, I just picked up my room and put it down, no boxes. It looks like that too.

I was watching You've Got Mail while I unloaded, the credits are on the TV I believe. Gus is chilling on the bed here, completely relaxed. Spencer (the dragon Spencer gave me and named for me from Lagoon) is next to my TV.

My bed.

I keep my shoes under the hotel like air-conditioner.

My bookshelf.

My bedroom door.

Notice anything odd in any of the pictures? The blue tabs on the walls? Our landlords said they wanted to fix up the holes in the walls, but never got around to it. We are going to give them a month before we rip those suckers down and start hanging more things up. The apartment echoes too much with nothing there.

A scary story, one night while we were sleeping some random kids decided it would be fun to shoot Idaho Falls up with a BB gun. Our kitchen window was hit. The bullet went through one panel of glass and bounced back out. Luckily it didn't go all the way through. We did have to file a police report, the cop said it was the thing going around so there were no worries about living in the area.

Here is a picture of the shot: It is about the size of a 50 cent piece. Not sure when it will be fixed, or if it will ever be fixed.

Not a bad place to live. I am happy here, I love my job, my apartment, etc. You should all stop by to visit if you are in town. Text and I will send you the address/directions.

I will be sure to keep you informed on whats up!

Intermission

I am just posting to tell you I will be posting soon. Its like a meeting to plan for another meeting. I have a lot of pictures and videos I want to post, and I want to make it fun and interesting, so it might take me a bit to work it all out. I don't close any night this week so I will work on it when I can.

In the mean time here are some highlights to look forward to:

-Moving to Idaho Falls
-Gus moving with me to Idaho Falls
-Starting a new job
-My new singles branch
-My apartment

Till then.

Apartment Shopping

Can you guess what I did all day today?

We called EVERY apartment listing in the paper that didn't say No Pets! I got through to about 1/2 of them, the other half I left messages. We visited two and set up appointments for another two.

The first little apartment was across from a cemetery, smelled like old socks and had the rudest land lady. She hardly spoke to us and when we had a question she snapped like we were criticizing her. I just wanted to know if she would fix the plug-in cover sheesh.

The second apartment we went through was a basement apartment, looked newish, was being cleaned at the time. The guy couldn't be there so he stayed on the phone with me while we walked through it.

Strange.
Other strange thing: He wanted to know people who know me to verify Gus didn't stink. O.o he wanted to know if he could talk to my sister or mom and ask them if he was stinky. Very strange. He said he will charge on the stinkiness of Gus. $10 being less stinky and $25 being really stinky.

It was just down the street from the place we picked.
Yup I found a place to live. Just have to put in the application and hope we get it. The guy said we can stop by tomorrow sometime and sign paperwork. It sounds like things are going to go through, we just have to wait till the current tenants move out.

Its a townhouse across from Westmark bank in Idaho Falls. It is about 2 miles from Sam's Club so I can drive or ride a bike to work (if I had a bike). I will be right down town, the mall about 5 minutes away from the house.
I am excited for the move. I will take pictures of the place as soon as we get the keys. I haven't been in the unit we are looking at renting, I was in number 6, we would be living in number 8.

I would show you the google picture of it, but for some reason it looks like the area hasn't been updated in a few years. I will give you the google image with my additions:



We would live in the orange unit on the far right side (hidden by the old apartments). They look like the yellow ones, but are townhouses, so no upstairs neighbors. There is no front yard, just parking lot, but there is a small backyard (all dead grass and shared with the neighbors). I should have taken a picture of it before we left today. Maybe next time I am by there I will snap a quick shot of the outside.

Anyway, that is whats going on in the world of Ashley. Enjoy

Advetures in life

Well ... a lot has happened since last I wrote. I will give you the watered down version of the whole thing since it is quite a bit.

Monday I worked in the Idaho Falls Family Dollar, (they fired everyone in one of them because they were stealing). While there the manager told me my boss didn't want to keep me to the end of the week, and she wondered why that was since I did such a good job in her store. I unloaded ALL chemical alone in 2 hours, that's pretty impressive.

I just stood there shocked. I shouldn't have, I knew my boss sucked. The manager told me I should transfer to another store, get away, since I wasn't wanted at mine. I told her I would take care of it and the second I clocked out I called the DM and told her I was done dealing with my boss and was putting in my two weeks.

YAY!!

She wanted to know what happened, so i explained and said I have another interview and I am done working for that woman anymore. She said she understands and left it at that.

Another interview you ask? Yes I had an interview for Sam's Club in Idaho Falls the next morning, which made me driving there very convenient. I stayed the night with Amanda and the next day she had to be to work 30 minutes before I was scheduled to be there, so I was just super early. At least I got to walk around and check things out.

I was first interviewed with a floor assistant manager, then the zone manager, and a second interview with the zone manager, and finally and interview with the store assistant manager! They said they loved my personality and could see me moving into assistant management quickly. Normally it takes 6 months of working there, but they said they have seen it happen a lot faster, and in my case it might just happen.

YAY!! I'm pretty impressed with myself.

They are hiring me for a part time cashier right now, but I am getting paid more than I was as an assistant manager at the FD. Funny how that works.

I had to work at the FD Thursday. I like working when I have nothing to lose. I don't feel guilty I didn't get every single thing done on my list of things to do. Especially when I was left ALONE for 2 1/2 hours because the manager didnt want to come back and cover a call-in's shift. The old/new cashier texted me she was sick and told me she was afraid to call the manager because she would kill her.

When the manager finally came back I insisted I get a lunch, I was going to be working over 6 hours so I was supposed to have one. I wasn't hungry, just wanted a break from the store. I didn't want to work there anymore.

She threw a fit so I called the DM, on the first ring my manager got really mad and said she would get in a till so I hung up. The DM called back right away wondering what happened. My manager told her everything was fine and I was just wondering if I should take a lunch. All in a sickingly sweet voice. I asked for the phone. She didn't give it to me. So I clocked out and waited till my manager was off the phone before calling the DM myself to tell her what happened.

She wasn't too happy with the manager. I got an ice cream and sat in a parking lot a bit aways for the 30 minutes I was given. When I got back not a word was spoken between us. We counted out of our tills, and went home. I am scheduled 2 days next week I hope I don't have to work. I am waiting for the phone call with my new schedule at Sam's.

I will be moving to Idaho Falls, but I will visit often. You should come visit me lots of fun places to eat and shop ^_^. I will let you know how it goes.

Sometimes we have to dance a little crazy