I've tried a few times lately to get this blog kick-started back into life, and have ended up with posts which after sleeping on I felt were not quite of the caliber I intend on continuing this blog with. However, I have a lot to talk about lately, and most of what has happened since the last post I allowed to stay up calls for a 3-drink minimum.
Since I'm on my ninth for the evening, I think that requirement has been satisfied.
Back in November, Allie and I separated. I'm not going into detail as to why, just suffice it to say that it was my decision, and the dreaded 'd' word is still on schedule. I hold no ill will towards her, we still get along quite nicely, but it's just....done. She's a great mother to Tristan and a good person, but she and I just did not work out.
Back in March, I lost my job at QFC because I accidentally violated a very important company policy for which I was cited, had to go to court, and required to pay a very lenient fine.
(On a completely unrelated note, I'm listening to the Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream album as I type this, and I'm on 'Quiet,' the second track, and it is epic.)
After going 'on the dole' as the Brits like to put it, I was unsuccessful in my attempts to re-enter the grocery industry. Things were not looking good for our hero. One fairly fuck-all day, I decided to enter 'bartender' into the Worksource search engine and saw a posting at the airport. I figured, "Fuck it, my stepmom works there and likes it, let's do the derrty dirty." I applied, and sure enough, I got an e-mail an hour later, and a phone call an hour after that, scheduling an interview. Lo and behold, it was for a position at the Anthony's in the airport, which is not RUN by the company I worked for previously, but happened to have a manager who worked with the GM of the Anthony's I did work for.
Bam. I interview. I know the product. I know the expectations. I know the jorb (no typo, Coach Z). I get the fucking job! I am now working at the busiest restaurant on the West Coast. That is not a typo, nor an exaggeration. Seriously, it's the busiest restaurant ON THE WEST COAST. The Thursday and Friday before Memorial Day weekend (which I was training during), the restaurant did $42k+ EACH DAY. That's what my grocery store did on a busy weekend day, and what the Anthony's I used to work for wished to do in a week.
My dad told me I had to put my last job behind me as soon as possible after reading a couple smarmy, angry Facebook posts about my last employer. Here's my last outburst, then. FUCK that company. I do everything I can to spend as little money at any Kroger, Fred Meyer, or QFC-affiliated company. I had nothing against them until QFC's head of HR decided he wanted to make an example out of me by not hiring me back. Their policy is to fire anyone who violates the policy I did, but they have rehired several people back after firing them. I was a rising star in the company, I made assistant store management within a year of being hired, and was never so much as written up or even verbally admonished for anything I did. I was being groomed for the next position above me when this incident happened.
Not only that, but Fred Meyer contested my eligibility for unemployment benefits AFTER I had stopped claiming them in attempts to make me pay back what I had been paid out just to fuck me over one step more. Thanks for wasting my time, and yours as well, since you lost.
Obviously, I'm bitter. However, because of this, I've been given a few choice opportunities, and I am much happier with my current situation than when I was when I was working for that company. I make more money now than I did as a senior journeyman at said store, and I have to work less hours. Not only that, I get to do the job I have loved most out of all the positions I've worked in my history, and I still get union-provided benefits for myself and my son. I've met some amazing people since I lost my job, and I see everything heading in a more positive direction now.
Time to shift into a different gear...music has been slowly progressing towards a different direction. I've spent a lot of my 'down time' working on songs-in-progress that Paolo and I have had in reserve, hoping for another LP sometime this year. We currently have about 13 tracks in relative stages of completion. Some are reworkings of our old band's songs, one or two are poignant Paolo love-ballads for his now-wife Amanda (they're good, I swear!), I want to cover an AAF song called 'What I Feel is Mine,' and we've got some riffs we've been trying to fucking work out that are finally working out. I'm trying to steer away from the Alright EP's overtly dark minor-key negativity in both my guitar stylings and my lyrical content. Though I was particularly content with the gutpunch that that five-track release sent into the musical solarplexus, it's time, as P-loq has said, 'to write something in a major key.'
Tonight's post has reached its end. I'll catch up more with you guys later. Thanks for listening.
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