Thursday, November 17, 2005
Scratch n sniff
Yesterday I had the day off from work, and we had scheduled an appointment to have our pictures taken with the dogs. So rather than have dirty stinky dogs in the portrait, we took them to the PetSmart groomer first. We got the Holiday Top Dog upgrade, and now our dogs smell like vanilla sugar cookies. Just scratch n sniff. Ha ha ha! *snarf* They’re all shiney too, and George is no longer orange from the Carolina dirt. Of course that won’t last long, and in no time they’ll both smell like dog again, and will be full of mud.
We got to the studio, which is in the back of a K-Mart, and the people at the front of the store looked at us in horror just because the sheer size of our dogs. A few kids of course just ran up and wanted to pet them “look, Beethoven!” It’s a good thing we’ve socialized our dogs with children, because parents sure don’t always socialize their kids with dogs, or teach them that you really should ask before you run up and stick your hand in front of a dog’s nose!
Anyhow, someone in the studio had also scheduled a family with a little boxer to have their picture done at the same time, so we were kind of rushed, because Bruno and George kept scaring the bejeebers out of the boxer! Poor thing, she had just been rescued about a month ago, and she is a rather nervous little dog to begin with. Then she gets barked at by 2 ginormous Saint Bernards! They just wanted to play, but even to other dogs, their size is intimidating.
I’ve transferred over to the Morganton studio, which is nice in only one way. I’m spending much less on gas to get there. Other than that, I really don’t like it much. Its way too small, about 5 times smaller than the Conover studio I was in before. Plus, with the nearly non-existant training I’ve had, I had a really difficult time trying to set up pictures, especially for the family of 6. I was embarrassed to even show their photos to them, and very surprised she bothered to buy any. I won’t be surprised tho if when she gets them back if she refuses them and wants a re-shoot. They’re really crap :-( I was left completely alone on Tuesday, and each and every sitting I had up until 6:30 pm had a screaming infant and/or toddler to be photographed. I did 9 total sittings on Tuesday, plus 2 walk-ins and a scheduled appointment who I never got even one shot of, because they couldn’t get the baby to stop screaming long enough. I got so far behind in schedule that I didn’t get my full hour of lunch, and then didn’t get to clock out til nearly 8:30. And I officially close at 7! I was completely exhausted, and so disappointed with myself, and quite frankly, with the company in general, that its going to be difficult to get out of bed tomorrow and go back there.
I’m really rather reticent to say a whole lot more about my abhorrent treatment and experience with this company, for fear someone will read it and notify them, and then I’ll lose my job. I may not want to keep it much past the holidays, but until then, we really could use the money to catch up on bills and pay for presents and whatnot. I really don’t know what I should do here. The District Manager, who, IMO, should be the one to take control and make sure that her employees are being adequately trained, seems to think its just a matter of my self confidence. In other words, its not her problem, its mine! Once she sees the pictures I took the other day tho, she may change her mind :-p I’ve had jobs before where I’ve been given the “baptism by fire” method of training, but I tell ya, this is by far the worst. I’m really not enjoying much of this at all. I really thought I could like this job, but so far, it just makes me want to cry and yell and quit. And I hate quitting. The perfectionist Virgo in me makes me want to keep trying. But then the logical Virgo in me says “pfffffffffft, its really not worth the stress”. Some people may read this and say “oh fer chrissakes Reba, you’re taking pictures, how hard can it be?” well, its not an easy job, its not very easy to get a family of 6 squished into a room about the size of a closet, and then get them all into the frame without getting the walls in the shot as well. And they’ve got a screaming toddler sitting on Mommy’s lap who just wants to go play with the toy dog it can see sitting on the shelf behind me. Add in a not easily dealt with case of claustrophobia, complete lack of air conditioning, standing under hot lights, and a really long bad day, and it’s a hard job. I’m so frustrated with it, I don’t know what to do.
Plus, I gave them a form and a void check to have them automatic deposit my pay check. Twice now is been sent to me in the mail, and when I asked the District Manager if she could check with Pay roll whether they have my form, all she said was “well they should have it by now”. Bleah…..
Next week I even get cheated out of my day off. All employees MUST work Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Isn’t that nice?
Well, I have today off too, so I will just sit and relax. And do laundry of course.
I was watching my LOST dvds, and all the extras and stuff. Ya know the guy who plays Sayid, Naveen Andrews, is actually English, and has a London accent. I knew he wasn’t Iraqi, his character accent is off a bit, but when I watched the interview segments with him and heard is real accent, it threw me off a bit. Of course, it doesn’t make him any less sexy ;-) I’d never seen him in anything other than LOST, so it was a surprise to hear an English accent. I figured he was American for some reason :-o
Evangeline Lilly, who plays Kate, is from Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta and has never had a speaking part before she landed the role on LOST. It took the producers a while to convince USCIS authorities to give her the work visa tho, so she was a day late getting to the shoot than other main line characters. Figures eh?
Which leads me to a question about “The Others” on the Island. How come they all seem to be from Canada!? Do the writers have something against Canada, or will it turn out later that it was an Air Canada flight that crashed and they’re the survivors? Last night’s episode, that showed us how the other survivors of Flight 815 have fared since the crash, showed Nathan may or may not have been one of the Others. And he was from Canada, just as Ethan said he was, when Hurley was doing his census. I’m confused tho if Nathan actually was a survivor, or an Other.
Poor Sayid, just built his lady a house, and then she got shot. He really isn’t having much luck with women is he? Although, I am sure there are thousands of women worldwide who would jump at the chance to console him! LOL! ¶ 11:52 AM
We got to the studio, which is in the back of a K-Mart, and the people at the front of the store looked at us in horror just because the sheer size of our dogs. A few kids of course just ran up and wanted to pet them “look, Beethoven!” It’s a good thing we’ve socialized our dogs with children, because parents sure don’t always socialize their kids with dogs, or teach them that you really should ask before you run up and stick your hand in front of a dog’s nose!
Anyhow, someone in the studio had also scheduled a family with a little boxer to have their picture done at the same time, so we were kind of rushed, because Bruno and George kept scaring the bejeebers out of the boxer! Poor thing, she had just been rescued about a month ago, and she is a rather nervous little dog to begin with. Then she gets barked at by 2 ginormous Saint Bernards! They just wanted to play, but even to other dogs, their size is intimidating.
I’ve transferred over to the Morganton studio, which is nice in only one way. I’m spending much less on gas to get there. Other than that, I really don’t like it much. Its way too small, about 5 times smaller than the Conover studio I was in before. Plus, with the nearly non-existant training I’ve had, I had a really difficult time trying to set up pictures, especially for the family of 6. I was embarrassed to even show their photos to them, and very surprised she bothered to buy any. I won’t be surprised tho if when she gets them back if she refuses them and wants a re-shoot. They’re really crap :-( I was left completely alone on Tuesday, and each and every sitting I had up until 6:30 pm had a screaming infant and/or toddler to be photographed. I did 9 total sittings on Tuesday, plus 2 walk-ins and a scheduled appointment who I never got even one shot of, because they couldn’t get the baby to stop screaming long enough. I got so far behind in schedule that I didn’t get my full hour of lunch, and then didn’t get to clock out til nearly 8:30. And I officially close at 7! I was completely exhausted, and so disappointed with myself, and quite frankly, with the company in general, that its going to be difficult to get out of bed tomorrow and go back there.
I’m really rather reticent to say a whole lot more about my abhorrent treatment and experience with this company, for fear someone will read it and notify them, and then I’ll lose my job. I may not want to keep it much past the holidays, but until then, we really could use the money to catch up on bills and pay for presents and whatnot. I really don’t know what I should do here. The District Manager, who, IMO, should be the one to take control and make sure that her employees are being adequately trained, seems to think its just a matter of my self confidence. In other words, its not her problem, its mine! Once she sees the pictures I took the other day tho, she may change her mind :-p I’ve had jobs before where I’ve been given the “baptism by fire” method of training, but I tell ya, this is by far the worst. I’m really not enjoying much of this at all. I really thought I could like this job, but so far, it just makes me want to cry and yell and quit. And I hate quitting. The perfectionist Virgo in me makes me want to keep trying. But then the logical Virgo in me says “pfffffffffft, its really not worth the stress”. Some people may read this and say “oh fer chrissakes Reba, you’re taking pictures, how hard can it be?” well, its not an easy job, its not very easy to get a family of 6 squished into a room about the size of a closet, and then get them all into the frame without getting the walls in the shot as well. And they’ve got a screaming toddler sitting on Mommy’s lap who just wants to go play with the toy dog it can see sitting on the shelf behind me. Add in a not easily dealt with case of claustrophobia, complete lack of air conditioning, standing under hot lights, and a really long bad day, and it’s a hard job. I’m so frustrated with it, I don’t know what to do.
Plus, I gave them a form and a void check to have them automatic deposit my pay check. Twice now is been sent to me in the mail, and when I asked the District Manager if she could check with Pay roll whether they have my form, all she said was “well they should have it by now”. Bleah…..
Next week I even get cheated out of my day off. All employees MUST work Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Isn’t that nice?
Well, I have today off too, so I will just sit and relax. And do laundry of course.
I was watching my LOST dvds, and all the extras and stuff. Ya know the guy who plays Sayid, Naveen Andrews, is actually English, and has a London accent. I knew he wasn’t Iraqi, his character accent is off a bit, but when I watched the interview segments with him and heard is real accent, it threw me off a bit. Of course, it doesn’t make him any less sexy ;-) I’d never seen him in anything other than LOST, so it was a surprise to hear an English accent. I figured he was American for some reason :-o
Evangeline Lilly, who plays Kate, is from Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta and has never had a speaking part before she landed the role on LOST. It took the producers a while to convince USCIS authorities to give her the work visa tho, so she was a day late getting to the shoot than other main line characters. Figures eh?
Which leads me to a question about “The Others” on the Island. How come they all seem to be from Canada!? Do the writers have something against Canada, or will it turn out later that it was an Air Canada flight that crashed and they’re the survivors? Last night’s episode, that showed us how the other survivors of Flight 815 have fared since the crash, showed Nathan may or may not have been one of the Others. And he was from Canada, just as Ethan said he was, when Hurley was doing his census. I’m confused tho if Nathan actually was a survivor, or an Other.
Poor Sayid, just built his lady a house, and then she got shot. He really isn’t having much luck with women is he? Although, I am sure there are thousands of women worldwide who would jump at the chance to console him! LOL! ¶ 11:52 AM
