Jane of All Trades

I've held quite a few jobs, but I can't really say I have a career. I graduated college about 3.5 years ago and I majored in Creative and Professional Writing.

I love writing and I want to make a career of it. I can't imagine going to school for something different. I think those 4 years really helped me to hone my skills.

I've been a baseball scorekeeper, concession stand worker, cashier, freelance writer, customer service rep and legal assistant. Now, I'm teaching English. I do not foresee myself continuing to teach once we return to the States. (Although. I have tinkered with the idea of teaching Pre-K.)

I love to learn new skills and have many interests, so its been hard for me to pick something that holds my interest and I feel I can commit to for a long period of time. That being said, my two favorite jobs have been working as a legal assistant and a freelance writer.

So, I'm in the perfect phase of my life to consider what career I would like to enter into. At the moment, I have a couple of dreams mashed together.

1. I would like to have a substantial amount of my income come from freelance writing. Yeah, I know, this isn't really a "new" career but one I've wanted to truly break into for a while. In the past, I've picked up side jobs here and there.

2. I would like to own a bakery. I'm not entirely sure I'd want to be the 5am baker, but I like to create flavor combinations, and design marketing.

3. I think I would also like to go into event planning. I really enjoy putting together events. I like to plan menus and decorations.

This post was inspired by a Mama Kat prompt. Hop on over to check out the other responses and to link up your own post.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....at work!

I work at a fabulous place owned by a really great Christian man. We had a door decorating contest between the four departments. My department went with a gingerbread house....and we tied for first place. Check it out

 

This is our gingerbread house! Its decorated with real candy and snacks.

 

Inside we set a Christmas scene, complete with a fire with real wood!

If you peek in the window you will see our family portrait that hangs above the fireplace.

She's Not Talking to a Foreigner

In addition to cashering and freelance writing I work part time in customer service for a local paper. This mostly involves talking with irritable people for 7.5 hours a day.

Here is a most recent example, I swear this lady had an evil agenda when she picked up the phone:

Me: Company's Name, How may I help you?

Bitchy Woman: You sound like you're from a different state.

Me: (Opens my mouth to explain that I may sound far away because I've been having phone trouble)

BW: Where are you located? Are you even in PA?

Me: Yes Ma'am. I'm in Greensburg Pa.

BW: You don't sound like it.

Me: I'm sorry. How can I help you today?

BW: I want to order a subscription for a friend but I don't know if you have delivery there. She's in Friendlyville.

Me: I can check for you. Whats the zipcode?

BW: Are you even in PA?

Me: Yes ma'am, I'm in Greensburg.

BW: Do you even know where Friendlyville is?

Me (considers honesty as the best policy) : No, ma'am I don't.

BW: How are your from Greensburg and not know where Friendlyville is?

Me: Ma'am, I'm not from Greensburg but I am in Greensburg.

BW: You just told me you were in PA! What's the name of the Director of Circulation of the Pittsburgh Trib?

Me: Ma'am I don't know their name but there are some managers in my office, whose names I do know that I could transfer you to if you'd like.

BW: How do you not know their name?

ME: Just  a minute ma'am. I'll see if I can find out. (I place caller on hold and ask around my office. No one knows  the name of the Director of Circulation. The Director doesn't handle customer service but the technical side of circulation and is in  an office an hour away from mine) Ma'am I'm not sure what their name is.

BW: YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO YOU WORK FOR?

ME: I don't know the name of the director of circulation ma'am. Would you like to speak with the director ma'am. I can transfer you.

BW: YES! I'M TIRED OF TALKING TO A FOREIGNER.

Yeah......I'm pretty sure she could use a field trip to Friendlyville. I

Customer Service

When  was in   school (high school and college), if you would have asked me if I would like a job in customer service, I would have told you no way. I am not good with people. And I waitressed once and the worst part of the job was dealing with the people.

Yet, here I am about to transition from one customer service position (cashier) to one that actually has customer service in the title. Yep. I'm going to be a customer service rep at the Tribune-Review. It's a newspaper that's over the one that I currently freelance for.

I was reflecting the other night, trying to come up with a reason for why I seem to only be able to get customer service type jobs lately, and realizing a fear of being stuck in that job path.

And that was when God spoke to my heart. He's placed me in customer serving positions so that I can work on my lacking people skills.  And its those skills that I will need to move on to the next  bigger/better thing that he has planned for my life.

I am grateful to have received this insight because I think it will help me have more drive to succeed and actually learn skills as a customer service rep rather than just skating by until I could find a more suitable job. I see now that I have things to learn. I also think it will help me to be happy when I experience bad days on the new job.

When has God given you insight into His plan for your life? When have you realized that God's plan may not have been exactly what you had been hoping for?

Here Me Roar!

I AM WRITER! HEAR ME ROAR!

The lady doing my eyebrows asks...so what do you do?

My husband's friend from work...where do you work?

And my standard response?

I'm a cashier. I work at [enter name of crazy grocery store]

Why? Why is that my answer?

That is not the job I identify with, not the job that is most important to me, not the job I have the degree for or even the most experience in (althought I do spend a lot of waking hours there).

But for some reason thats the answer I give.  I don't feel like I'm afraid for people to think of me as "a nutty artsy person". I sometimes like being that person.

I don't care if some people don't think thats  a "real job". I do it. I get paid for it. I love it. How can it get any more real than that?

I don't know what my deal is but to help myself articulate my job to others I've ordered cute business cards so now I can say  "I'm a writer. Here's my card."

On the subject of jobs, I have/had two interviews  this week. One Tuesday and the other Thursday.
The first is to work in a library and plan and implement their children's programming. Dream job material!  Except its only 25 hours a week.

The second is work at the newspaper as a receptionist. Its upside is its fulltime with benefits at a place I'd like to write for. Can you say, foot in the door? The downside is its a receptionist poistion and doesn't involve kids.

Strike One

Whoops!

I've offically lost on my goal to post every day in June! That just means I've got to make up for it in July! I'm not letting myself off the hook for June though- I'm still going to try to post everyday. Hopefully this week I can get some posts built up so I don't have to worry about missing.

Anyway, here's why I didn't post yeterday:

I was having fun!!!

We had a couple over for dinner and game night and we had such a blast playing scategories, taboo and loaded questions (my 3 favorite games!). The couple have been friend with Mike for many years and  I'd  met them via Skype when we were in Korea but this was my first time hanging out with them in person. It was fabulous! We laughed the whole night through and I felt like I had known them forever.  I hope we have many more nights of laugheter ahead of us

  I made a pot roast in the crock pot with asian spices and root veggies. I southerned it up a it and made a broccoli casserole. Although, I'm not sure how "southern" a recipe is if you get the recipe from a Californian while you're in Glasgow Scotland!

Yesterday I wanted to blog about a job offer I recieved Friday via voicemail through a staffing agency I've been trying to work with. They left the message at noon while I was cashiering. I called back at 3:30 when my shift ended and the offer had been filled! Why did they even bother leaving a message?!

So tomorrow I am applying at Aldi because they are advertising a starting rate of eleven bucks! Sounds good to me! I'm also dropping my resume in the mail for an activities assitant job that I think would be really fun to have.

Tomorrow I'm attemptinh my first ever CVS and Rite Aid couponing trips. My fingers and toes are all crossed that I'll make out okay. I've gotten deal match ups from a few different blogs, have cut my coupons and sorted them into envelopes labeled with the store names. I've also included coupon policies and an instuction sheet that breaks down my shopping list into transaction listed in the order they should be completed. Learning couponing is exciting and fun, but also a bit exhausting, confusing and nerve racking at the same time. But it is something I am dedicated to learning so I'm going to push through and see if I can figure out how drugstore couponing works.

I Have More Street Smarts Than You Care to Admit

Certain people in my life (namely my father, sister and husband) are always getting on me because I like to read and the fact that I'm a little short changed when it common sense, and in fact they tend to form a relationship between the two which I think is dumb of them but anyway. I am not known for my street smarts, but I may have proven a few people wrong yesterday.

Here's the dealio:

A man got into my line and his total came to $2.12 and he  handed me a $100 bill. I checked it and started to count out his change.

He stopped me and took back the $100 bill and put it in his pocket and said he had the $2.12 instead****.

Then he says to me that he doesn't have the $2 but gave me the 12 cents and asked me for $98 change instead. So I  count out the $98 and set it on top of my register (At this point I knew what was going on and waas making sure to be extra cautious). I asked him for the $100 bill.

He told me he gave it to me. I said no you didn't. He told me to look in the bottom of my drawer, that he watched me out it there. I put my hand over the changed and quickly flipped through the bills.  I told him I put it there when he first handed it to me and then he put it in his pocket and never gave it back to me.

He handed me $2 and left.

**** Indicates when I first realized what was happening. Bells went off in my head beacause I read an article about how conartists try to swindle hot dog vendors out of extra cash by confusing them about what bills were given to them by trading the money back and forth a lot during the transaction

1 Mrs. BOOK SMARTS 0 Mr. Street Smart Loser

Take that!

Haircuts Make All The Difference

Today was a crummy day at work (grocery store, not the paper). I got yelled at by a customer for something that wasn't my fault and got scolded a few times by management for nonissues, but I'm not going to go into too much detail. I am going to tell one story though.

I worked the 6am-1pm shift, which I love, so everything was going great until I got this one customer. I asked him fir his store card. Without the card you don't get store sales or gas points and your coupons don't double. This man had a bunch of soft drinks and asked if he had to use his store card. I told him that he never had to use it but  that if didn't use the card he wouldn't recieve any of the benefits, such as gas discounts and sale prices. He tells me that the few dollars the soft drinioks he's buying aren't worth the card (Basically, he's too lazy to reach into his pocket and hand me the dang card). So I ring up his groceries, and he hands me a coupon, which I scan and he pays.

As he is walking away away he looks at his receipt and asks me why his coupon didn't double. I explain that coupons don't double without your store card.

He says to me "Well, why didn't you tell me that."

"Sir, I explained that you wouldn't get any benefits of the card without me scanning the card."

"Well I didn't know  that meant coupons wouldn't double. You should have asked me for my card."

"Sir, I did ask you for you card".

And then he snarled at me "You did not!" and stormed away to customer service, where after he left I was scolded for not repeatedly asking him for his card. Next time I'll stick my hand down his pocket and fish it out. See how he likes that.

Anyway, that was just the start of the day and I left the store fuming. I bought a chocolate chip cookie the size of my head and ate it in my car while the ran poured down around me. I felt like crying but had a hair appointment in less than half an hour and didn't want to go in smudge-faced.

I got my hair cut and eyebrows done for $25, which really made my day as I was expecting to pay close to $40. I usually pay $10 for my eyebrows alone.

I came home, took a nap, did some speed cleaning, changed into a hot outfit and did my makeup and then my husband and I went out to a hungarian restaurant and it was amazing. We were greeted with steaming bowls of cabbage and tomato soup and potato bread. We had perogis and I orderd chicken crepes that came with mashed potatoes and carrots with parsnips. And then I had a chocolate rum rasian cake, that was good but not as good as our wedding cake.

And now my hair is all ready for....get this....

MY JOB INTERVIEW on Monday! I've got an interview for the assistant event planner!

Woot Woot!

Celebrate!

I have a few reasons to be extra happy this weekend!

1. My husband is feeling better and knows what has been causing him pain and worry. And has a way to ease his pain! Praise God!

2. Our new dining room set came today! We got a really good deal. We bought the table and chairs for $599 and it came with a queen sized mattress and box spring set! It's not the best quality mattress but it sure does beat sleeping on the couch and chair and half. And, we plan on moving my parents old bedroom set up this summer for our guest bedroom. So when that happens we can move the free mattress on to it and buy ourselves a nicer mattress.

3. I've been writing pretty steadily for the local paper and started my training at the grocery store last week.

4. Yesterday was sunny and warm enough that I was able to sit outside and read my FREE subscription to Better Homes and Gardens!

5. I've knocked a few things of of my 101/1001 list lately. The latest item was not as hard as I thought it would be. "Cook 15 new non-dessert recipes." And I did it! Suprisingly, before the similar goal to cook 15 new dessert recipes! You can check out my Kitchen Adventures page to check out the recipes I've tried and liked enough to blog about. A few more should be coming this week! Knocking that goal off my list means I've completed 32 of the goals on the list!

What good things happend to you this week?

I can't stop bouncing!

I am literally that excited.

My interview this morning with the paper was exciting! I'll be working as a stringer and my first assignment is due next Friday.

Since that's only part time writing and doesn't require me to be in the office I'm still looking for a "day job".
My interview at the Giant Eagle went well. I was told I was "a good fit" and that I should have an official confirmation by Wednesday.

And, when I got home there was a message on the machine for the Girl Scout job I would love love love to have. The message said that the office was closing early today but that they would call back on Tuesday to schedule an interview with me!

Keep me in your prayers please!

What are you excited about today? A new job? A perfected recipe? The Super Bowl?

Job Hunt Updates WITH UPDATES

Yesterday, I had an interview to be a cashier with the Salvation Army.
Today I had an  interview with Ramada Inn for a front desk position.
Tomorrow I have an interview with Giant Eagle
TOMORROW I HAVE AN INTERVIEW WITH THE LIGIONIER ECHO!!!


Yesterday afternoon I called human resources for a job I'd applied for last week with the Girl Scouts. I was told I'd hear something by Thursday night, and if not to call back Thursday afternoon or Friday.


Keep your fingers crossed for me...and hopefully by the beginning of next week I will be posting the last update!

Job Hunting Updates

I've applied tons of places. Dollar General, Subway, Seton University, church childcare, candy shop, pie shop, Denny's. The list goes on and on.

Aldi is having a hiring event tomorrow and I'm going. The paper says cashiers start out a $10/hour. That would be worth the thirty minute drive to work. I'm also faxing in my resume to a retirement community that needs an office assitant and picking up an application for Dino's restaurant whose sign says they are hiring. And, on the 24th, I'm attending a meeting about taking free classes on becoming a realtor.

And...even bigger news? Subway called earlier today and I have an interview on Wednesday!

On the Hunt

Lately I’ve been on the hunt for a job. I started out by applying downtown at every store on the diamond- coffee shops, sweet shops, restaurants, clothing stores. And I’ve applied at a few restaurants uptown too.
And then Friday night Mike introduced me to a state run job search website where we found some great openings for administrative assistants at several places like churches and Seton University as well as an opening for a greeter at a dealership. I hope to mail off resumes for those positions on Monday, fill out a few applications for places like Walgreens and Subway, and the bank next door and then cross my fingers and trust in the Lord to provide.


If you know of any openings in the Ligonier/Latrobe/Greensburg area please pass them along!


As a side note, I checked out a Writer’s Market from the library and have started to search for places to send my poetry and creative nonfiction pieces.

New ATMs

The two new ATMs I added are both books on advertising, recommended by my new boss, at my ATM favorite job-working as a copywriter.

Both books are written by Ogilvy- an advertising genius. I love his writing style- its very honest, very personal and still manages to convey a lot of interesting information.

There is a lot of overlap in the books, so you might want to read just one. I can probably recommend one after I finish them both.