CodeBorg, the website talks back to me. It tells me that it appreciates your input, and it would love to hear more from you! It finds you very interesting.
;-)
Dear Diary,
My jobs are both interesting and exhausting. On my feet a lot at both, which is hard on my knees and back, but the people are great, the work is good, I'm learning and creating. The good outweighs the bad. I could use some more naps, though!
I have been baking breads and pastries, training to open a new store... next week? week after? They keep moving the date. We really want to get into OUR store and do a real test of the ovens, mixers, and other equipment. For the time being, we are training in a store downtown.
Yesterday we tested out a few things in the new deck ovens in the new store. Some things worked, and some of them I would very much like to put back in the convection ovens. As the unofficial lead bread baker, and having discussed it with the unofficial lead pastry cook, I think we will probably be able to do that. I hope management doesn't decide we have to use the decks for these things. The cookies and cakes really want to go in the convection oven. They don't want to go in the decks.
We shall see what happens. The decks are on display, right in front of customers, while the convection ovens are hidden in the kitchen. I am afraid that we will be expected to be on stage a lot, and will thus be asked to use the deck ovens for some things when convection might be more appropriate.
Hmm.
Other job is good. Was originally scheduled to work there this afternoon, but got a call saying they're over the budget for hours, so they had to cut my shift this afternoon. I am of two minds about this. I would obviously prefer to have the income, but I am tired from working every morning and half the afternoons and I really want to rest today.
B is at one job this morning, and at his other one this evening.
He seems okay with the retail job. He's never done retail before, but he's been a bartender for many years so he knows how to deal with the public. He's a great salesman. And he gets to be around TVs and other nifty toys.
His other job is not so good. The company is disorganized. B is entry-level management, making more than I do, but less than he should make. The job itself is not ideal for him. He needs to be doing something all the time, and there's too much down time in this job.
We shall see what happens.
My biggest concern right now is how on earth we are going to pay rent this month. And then after rent there's the car payment and then credit cards and student loans. Not to mention groceries. And not to mention the fact that we have next to no furniture.
Next month we should be okay, I hope, but right now we have such a time lag between work days and paychecks (especially Brian's, which is a lag of two to four weeks at each job.) We've both been working, but of the four jobs we have between us, only the one I've had longest and which pays the least has paid me.
Ah well.
marycat,
Enjoyed your sharing...interesting details. I concur with your CodeBorg comment.
Unhappy Update,
My American friend who was held for a day while three guys tried to rob him only a week ago went missing again yesterday afternoon about five pm and hasn't been seen since. His wife of course is frantic. An agent from the American Embassy in Bogota will come down tomorrow but there's isn't anything he can do. One awfull possibility is being sold by local criminals to the guerrilla group known as the FARC. I truely hope I can post later that it was all a false alarm.
Geez those guys seem sneaky
Dear Diary,
Spent Monday to Wednesday in Lyon/France for the annual meeting of our European Works Council. Very interesting. Finally I got to see not only HR presentations but presentations about the company as a whole. And I finally got to meet the business area president. I like meeting the people that I have been working with over the phone and via e-mail and to see their offices and all.
And I got to go on a factory tour and see the production close up which I haven't seen yet in Hechingen. We had a lot of fun putting on the clean room stuff...
Lyon was very lovely. It has a wonderful old part. We got to go on a little sightseeing tour on Tuesday evening.
And I guess I did a good job representing HR. At least the male works council members seemed to like me :-)
What is there not to like
My, My, 63 pages! Am I going to read them all before I post? Right. I'll do it little by little. I'll watch for a while before I jump in though.
There are a lot of fine people here I know. To you, Hello!
To those I don't, Glad to meet you!
Here's a tiepo so you'll no it's me!
Morganwood,
It is good to read you again.
It's a great end to a lovely week! Busy at work, but I like it that way! People were in a good mood, and that makes the difference.
The doctor I work for is finally getting to like me {I think}. He has been calling in between his surgeries to find out what's going on in his absence, which he never did before. He even asked what I was going to do this weekend! Now, that's a real eye-opener!
This same doctor is preparing to go on a 10 day cruise next week with his family. I asked if he was looking forward to it, he said no.
He is upset because one of his patients died, she was only 40 years old, had a normal/everyday surgery, and two days later died.
Everyone at work thinks this doctor is heartless, they don't realize he has a big heart, and he doesn't know how to communicate "small talk", unless he knows you really well. He has a heart of gold, he cares, but doesn't know how to show it, and he worries about the business, his employees, his patients, and most of all his family.
I think {?} I have been instrumental in bringing him to this point in his life because I told him long ago he was suffering from an anxiety disorder ... he told me at that time he knew. That is why I have contributed to his healing of this. One day I asked him how he would feel if he lived as I do, paycheck to paycheck ... he looked at me as if I were an alien! Right!
He's okay though, and I really like him now!
Misti, the paycheck thing - yeah, they don't know what you are talking about. My boss keeps complaining that after taxes and the money he has to pay for his ex-wife and the kids hardly anything is left. Yeah, right! I feel veeeeery sorry for him!
Dear Diary,
I had a great time last night chatting with Rae (there were others, too, of course...) and went to bed much too late. Oh well, it's the weekend.
Now we have a nice thunderstorm after a hot Saturday. I guess I will wait for this to be over and then head out for dinner at La Pergola.
Dear Diary,
I have been obscenely unfaithful to you.
I posted ... on another thread! :-(
Would you, can you, possibly forgive me?
It's called
THE QUIET ROAD (Do you believe in love?)
If you read it, please say whatever you think. If you are not too betrayed or too put off.
Gautam, mon ami, I loved your post. :wink:
Pitter--Any word on the missing friend?
Terry-We all thought my American friend was kidnapped and a US Embassy agent came down from Bogota to investigate. Richard was found Saturday by some city workers up in the hills around Cali. Just happens one of them is a neighbor. Richard is in bad shape. He seems to have not been fed anything since being taken Wednesday afternoon but worst of all he was given a drug, probobly scopolamine to erase his memory. He now can't remember any thing before being picked up Saturday. He doesn't remember me or even that he has a daughter, almost nothing. What I didn't know last week is that in addition to his passport, wallet and apartment keys they also found an address book on him which evidently has my name, address and phone in it. When he was found all his stolen belongings had been stuffed in his pocket...except the address book. The passport was so beat up it had apparently been duplicated. I have now received two hang up calls and today saw a car with the engine running and blacked out windows parked a half block from the house. Tomorrow we're leaving town for a week or two to go to the north coast to think over our options. Unfortunately we can't just hop on a plane for the states because she doesn't have a visa which for a Colombian is a long drawn out process.
The good news is we went to the volcano outside Manizales called Nevado De Ruiz this weekend and saw two soaring Andean Conders.
Pitter--My thoughts will be with you.
Babs--Wonderful news!
Few got away
Lifting my eyes to each new person that foolishly crossed my path today, i held their gaze,looking deep into the vacum of the life they pretend to live. I made sure each one gave themselves, at last, to me willingly.
Dear Diary,
Thinking it a good idea to get out of town for a while in case the sobs who got my friend are casing us, we went up to the north coast to a little fishing village called Taganga. It's fifteen minutes from the much larger Santa Marta which with nearby Rodadero is a major Colombian tourist attraction. Taganga's big draw is that there are numerous outfits there that offer full PADI scuba certification courses for $150. Another is cheap lodging on the beach in places like Casa Blanca where our room with balcony overlooking the bay cost about $12 for the two of us. Quite comfortable. The hotel is more hostel style with a kitchen guests can use to keep costs down. Because of these prices the village draws a lot of backpacker foreign visitors though very few from the US. We were surprised to find our hotel had about twenty from Isreal. Mostly young guys discharged from the army and some girls. They, the staff told us never ever tip and argue every peso as well as leaving the rooms a wreck. Looking through the register I saw that Isrealis are the most common visitors followed by German and Swiss but most European countries were represented. In addition to the Isrealis there were a couple of young German girls who were traveling around Colombia. Unfortunately the ocean fronting the village has a fair amount of trash floating in it and after one swim I lost interest. We went the next day with a scuba party in launch to a more secluded spot and spent the day snorkling in clean, clear water. I still can't get my wife to swim over her head even with swim fins. She can do it perfectly well but panics when it starts to look deep.
Because we didn't want to swim in front of the hotel we cut our stay short and went over to Rodadero for a day and a night. It is the opposite of Taganga being completely commercial and attracting wealthy Colombian tourists. Every twenty paces you're accosted by a street tout insistently offering you a hotel or condominium. They get a commision of course if they can drag you in to the registration counter. I hate the place. The only good thing it has is a serious aquareum in top notch condition containing many of the species of sea life that inhabit that part of the Caribbean.
Yesterday we returned to Cali and I spoke with Richard. He sounded his old self, no longer afraid of his own shadow and having recovered much more of his memeory.
Today I don't know. I guess we will call some real estate rental offices in another city. (I'll name it later.) I hate to leave. I/we are really very content with everything here but I also don't want to risk going through what happened to Richard. It's really a miricle he got through it with his life. I am amazed that my wife is disposed to make such a move (a good five hours away by bus), leaving family and friends but so far her willingness seems sincere. Of course I can only imagine what the phone bills will be.
