Kate’s Rants

i’m coming home early. i’m hopefully coming back on may 12th. brad broke up with me and i can’t stay here any longer. i might be missing out on some cool sights to be seen, but i am sure i will be back to europe at some point in my life, when i am happier and will have a better time. the end.

so hey, i’ve been working at this department store for about 2 weeks now. i’ve gotten the hang of it. i got “till trained” which means i can now work the cash register. i have learned how inefficient some of they systems are here (like when a customer wants to know how much something is, and it turns out that item costs more than they thought and they don’t want it anymore, in order for me to continue the sale, i have to page a manager to come over to void out the transaction. how dumb is that? because managers are never right there, so it takes them like 5 minutes to get there. and by then there’s a huge line of angry waiting customers. silly silly irish.) i’ve been working in the boy’s section for most of the time, and i know where mostly everything is and i can direct people to the shoes or the underwear and tell them whether or not we have khaki pants in size 11.

however, starting next week i’m getting moved to the women’s section. this is both good and bad. this is good because they told me i’d be getting more hours. this is bad because the women’s section is always huge and messy. also the girls who work in the women’s section seem slightly snobbier and very cliquey. sooo i’ll just have to break into their little group or keep to myself. whatever, i’ll be making more money so that’s all that matters.

i think i got paid today, but there’s really no way for me to find out. tomorrow i’m going to work and then sunday the bank is closed so i can’t find out if i got paid. i THINK i did, but i know i got emergency taxed (which means they took 40% of my paycheck!) i’ll get most of that back though, once i file my tax forms, once they come in the mail. all in good time.

anyway, it’s not the greatest job in the world, but it will allow me to stay a bit longer and see a bit more of the world, so it’s worth it.

ok so a couple posts ago i mentioned how brad and simon have a very…. interesting…. relationship.

i told brianne that when brad tries to flirt with me and he doesnt get a reaction (which sometimes happens) he moves on and “flirts” with simon, and always gets some sort of reaction.

like i’ve said for years: boys are WEIRD!

anyway, mostly their situation has morphed into more of a father/son relationship. like, brad will wake simon up in the morning so he wont be late to work (or for schooooool haha just kidding). he makes sure simon gets his paperwork done (homework done?) so he can get bank accounts and things like that. he buys simon presents like puzzles. we make simon dinner and when it’s ready brad says “simee, dinner’s ready! come eat.”

i’m telling you, it’s very weird. i, of course, take every opportunity to tease them about it and point out every father/son thing going on.

today simon was supposed to leave at 10am so he could get to the social welfare office so he could get his PPS number. (that’s like an irish social security number. with this number, we won’t be getting taxed as much as we would without it.) we all went yesterday to get these numbers, but joe, our landlord, had not signed simon’s lease, plus his name isn’t actually simon, it’s something else that i cant say or spell because it’s chinese. anyway, since the names didnt really match up and the lease wasnt signed, he had no proof of address so they wouldnt give him a PPS number. so he had to go back today. and yesterday when we all went together, we went early because otherwise we would have had to wait in a long line for hours. since we were the first ones there (30 mins before the place even opened) we got to be the first ones in line and so we got done in about 1 hour instead of 3. ANYWAY, simon should have gotten to the social welfare office at 10am today because it opens at 10:30 and if he wanted to ensure that he would be there first, he should have used the logic we used yesterday and gotten there 30 mins early.

however, brad and i woke up at 10am, and brad said outloud “i wonder if simon left yet.” and i said “i’m not sure.” and he said “should i wake him up if he hasn’t?” and i said “no! he’s an adult, and you have to let him grow up sometime and take responsibility for himself.”

of course simon hadn’t woken up, and didnt get up until 10:30, so he’s probably going to have to wait for a really long time and who knows if he’ll even make it because he has work at 1pm.

but hey, he’s gotta grow up sometime.

let go brad! let simon spread his wings!

THE END.

i just finished watching “an inconvenient truth”- the documentary al gore made about global warming.

it’s a scary thing, this global warming. and now after watching this documentary, i am motivated to do something about it.

i went to the website that was listed in the credits. (www.climatecrisis.org) there it lists a bunch of ways the public can help reduce carbon emmissions. because when you think “global warming” you are probably thinking it’s a big problem that is way out of your hands. that’s what i was thinking. or you were thinking it’s a myth that scientists are getting all bent out of shape about.

but i trust scientists. they know what’s going on, and if they are telling us that global warming is happenning and the consequences WILL affect us, i believe them.

anyway, most of the things are very small changes that won’t really affect your everyday life too much, but if everyone does these changes, it will help reduce carbon in the atmosphere and will lower the temperature of the world, and will help stop nature going berzerk. i, for one, plan on making these energy saving changes.

- get the special flourescent energy saving light bulbs.
- unplug appliances you are not using!
- dry your clothes on a clothesline instead of the dryer (this will be easier since global warming has made it SO HOT!!!)
- use your car less, or buy an energy efficient car. (i have a honda, currently being used by my parents. and hondas are alright. and i can get a job in tracy that i can ride my bike to, since i have a fantastic bike. currently i walk to work. once i eventually buy my own car, which will be in the far distant future, i’m sure energy efficient cars will be more readily available to the public and i will surely buy one of those.)

all in all, i’m concerned for the welfare of the earth, and i think everyone should try to help.

if you are not convinced, you should go talk to some scientists or watch al gore’s movie. and then talk to some more scientists.

anyways, even if you dont believe in global warming (because you are just THAT stubborn!), reducing energy consumption will lower your energy bill anyway and so you’ll have more money to go out and buy that battery powered car.

good luck everyone, i know you can do it!

so today i went to work at Dunnes department store. i got to the little office area where we had our orientation, and the other two new girls were already sitting there. so i joined them and we chatted for a bit and sat around for about 25 minutes until someone finally remembered that we were there. one of the girls had to go back to poland for a couple of weeks on tuesday so they told her to just check back in and reapply when she gets back. (poor new girl. already got the boot.) anyway, then they let us into a different office and gave us our uniform shirts and showed us where the locker room was so we could try them on. joanne and i both tried on a couple of shirts and found ones that sortof fit. they were clearly used before, because both of our shirts were missing a button (but we both had other t-shirts on underneath so it wasnt a big deal) and my shirt has a rough patch on one of the sleeves, like someone rubbed the fabric on something too many times. weird.

anyway, we put on our used shirts and then someone showed us the futuristic time clock that we’d be using to clock in. you have to SCAN YOUR HAND to clock in! it’s seriously like a science fiction movie. talk about star trek. (not that i would know because i highly dislike star trek- i only saw bits of episodes when i lived with jessica because she LOVED it and whenever she was flipping channels and she’d find it she’d yell “star trek!” and get really into it and i would sigh and stay for a few minutes but ultimately give up on the corniness and leave the room cause i can’t stand that show.)

so yeah, futuristic hand-scanning device. crazy!

that doesnt go into effect until after easter though. but for me it doesnt matter because i havent gotten my finacial things set up yet because i dont have a bank account yet because i dont have a PPS number yet because i dont have my immigration card yet because the machine that prints the cards was broken when we went to the immigration office and now we are just waiting for them to come in the mail. who knows how long it will take?

anyway, so i’m not going to actually be able to get paid until all of those things happen. which could be awhile. yikes. but oh well.

tomorrow i should really call the immigration office to find out what happened with our cards.

ok well back to day one.

after the hand scanning thing (which amazed both joanne and myself) we were taken upstairs to the clothing area. (the ground floor is the grocery store.) so we go up this moving ramp thing. imagine those moving floors in the airport. now tilt it up 30 degrees. that’s what we went up. it was strange. i’m used to escalators cause at least you have a step to stand on that is flat. but this was tilted and i thought i was going to slide down. there’s even a sign that says “don’t walk, hold hand rail at all times” which i wasnt doing until i saw the sign. and also explains the feeling like i was going to slip.

so we get upstairs and get passed on to someone else who hasn’t a clue what to do with us. so they page the manager, who doesnt come right away. so the girl decides to show us around. right after she begins the tour, Catherine comes running over and says “don’t steal my girls!” introductions are made, we find out that we are being designated areas. they ask us who is full time and who is part time. joanne says she is flexi, so they look at me and go “you must be nights and weekends” and i go “uh. sure.” and so catherine says “that means your MINE!” and then she asks me if i’ve ever worked in a shop before, and i tell her yes. and she asks if i have ever worked in a childrens department before, and i say yes, it was my first job. so she looks at me all delighted and goes “perfect!”

now, i’m going to rewind to this morning when i was talking to brad. telling him “i hope i’m not in the kids department. i hated working in kids! they always messed up the toys and stuff. i dont want to work in women’s either though, it’s always the messiest. men’s would be good. nobody ever goes in there.”

but of course i got put in kids.

so i spent the day “merchandising” which means i organized the clothes on the racks with the smallest size towards the front and the largest in the back. i also cleaned up the toy area. why must there always be a toy area?! at least this one is in the corner, wheras in sears it was right in the middle so i had to go clean it up every five minutes whenever any kid came over and messed it up.

i was thinking to myself “this isn’t that bad” when my shift was almost over. the store closed early today because it is good friday. so starting at 6pm someone kept announcing that the store was almost going to close. (it closed at 7.) but that did not keep out the straglers. there was this young mother with her maybe 2 year old son and probably her friends in the kids shoe department. the kid was SCREAMING because he wanted some shoes, and she kept telling him they were too big for him. (they really were.) but he’s 2, he doesnt listen. he just screams. so she finally lets him try them on. meanwhile it’s 7pm, one of the girls in the department walks past them and says to me “if anyone asks ALL THE TILLS ARE CLOSED.” and i was like “oh, ok.” basically trying to tell these people to get the heck outta here.

but i think the screaming kid who was making the mom really mad forced those words out of the area around them so they did NOT hear it and tried to checkout later, which caused problems and mean looks from customers because we clearly closed the till too early and didnt tell them. (oh, customers. they are all silly.)

so, i’ve regressed to my very first job ever, that i got when i turned 17. i’ve regressed to my 17-year-old job. wow.

also, i’m only part time. what a bummer. i need to get another job now.

but hey, the upside is that now i have at least SOME sort of income. well, not REALLY yet since i dont have the appropriate tax/immigration/bank documents that i need in order to get paid. but once i DO get them, then i’ll have a nice little paycheck every week. horray!

oh, and the photo progress. well i’ve been trying to upload my pictures from the highlands trip into bubbleshare for about 4 days now, and it is just SLOW. brad said i should just go to a cafe with free WiFi and do it there, it would probably be faster. so maybe i’ll do that. meanwhile i’m uploading pics 2 at a time and i’ve gotten about 30 of the 200 or so pictures that i want to share with you all. one day i’ll have them all on there so i can post it. seriously though, it will probably be awhile.

ps: brad and simon have a very funny love affair or father/son thing going on and i will post about that in the near future. stay tuned!

I GOT A JOB!

no, this is not a joke.

i really did! and that is great because it relieves the anxiety i have in the pit of my stomach because i withdrew the rest of my money out of my RBS account yesterday….. YIKES.

anyway, it’s a Dunnes Stores (a huge chain of grocery/clothing stores all around Ireland). I’m working in the clothing dept above the grocery store in the mall. wow, flashback to high school. jeez. but who cares! it’s a job! i start on wednesday. they told me i’ll be working 2-3 evenings during the week and every weekend.

i also applied at a bakery that needs someone for one month. i figure: bakery=mornings, so hopefully i can work there AND dunnes! that would be super amazing because this bakery smells unbelievably scrumdiddlyumptious! so yeah, fingers crossed. i’m supposed to hear from the bakery lady this evening. we’ll see what happens.

yay! for! having! a! job!

now i just have to manage to save enough to travel for a month this summer. sheesh!

ok, so i know this will come as a surprise to lots of people. but brad and i GOT MARRIED!!!

i know it’s sudden and fast, but basically brad and i were talking about it and being apart for 6 months was a long time. and we don’t know what will happen when we go back to the states and have to be apart AGAIN. anyway we met a “spiritual humanist” who is got ordained online and is able to marry pretty much anyone. so we thought, why not? we’ll put aside our petty disagreements and take the plunge! then we can be together and not worry about our relationship weakening later on.

so now we are married and it’s fantasitc.

go see our spontaneous wedding pictures here!

i’m too excited to type any more!!