The Continuing Saga of the People at Taco Time

Okay, I said I would fill you in...

I stopped at the store Monday not at 10 AM, but at 4 PM (just before mister Richard was leaving).

• **On a side note here... this is not the same Richard "Cheesy" that I worked for before, but, he seems to be about as bad and I would almost prefer "Cheesy" and his mother to this new guy.** Okay back to our regular message...

I pulled up (with mom, in her car) and he was outside smoking a cigarette (ick!) he was also on the cell phone--have I ever mentioned how much I hate those things? So he gets off the phone and asks me to come in to the store. I go in and he clocks back in (I am not totally understanding this, I thought he was salary, but apparently they want to clock his time? I do not know). He also gets a paper, now as soon as he had the paper, I figured he was writing me up. Okay, I can live with that. I mean I didn't show up and I didn't call... Whatever. So he starts reading me what he has listed on the form...

He checked absence, he checked tardiness (although he did state it is difficult to be tardy if you are absent--DUH!!), breaking company rules, carelessness, refusal to obey orders. Then in explanation of offense wrote, "I held a store meeting that was mandatory you failed to make it to the meeting or to call." (Now I see a gajillion things wrong with the sentence as well as the violations he checked, but whatever...)

He also wrote under manager comments, "Because this meeting was mandatory it was also a team building exercise I need every member of this store to become part of the team, If this happens again you will be at least suspended and possibly terminated." (Again with the grammar).

There is a space for my comments and well, I could have written a book, but mom was waiting and the car was running and we had other places to go. So, I wrote, "I was upset for a variety of reasons and when my husband got up--he shut off the alarm, so I did not get up." (Okay lame put off onto James, I know, but it's true, I do vaguely remember him kissing my forehead before he left, even came to my side of the bed to cover me up better too, I think--I was semi-incoherent after all).

He also tells me that if it weren't for the fact that I was such a good hard worker (my strong work ethic) he probably would have just fired me. When I told mom this, she said I should have told him not to do me any favors--no kidding.

When I came home to tell James about all this, he asked me if I laughed at him the whole time. I told him I didn't laugh, but I had this enormous grin on my face the whole time. It was crazy, you know how when you smile for a long time, like really huge, and your face starts to hurt and feel like it is going to crack, yeah, well that's how it was. That Cheshire cat grin, that just won't go away... So, yeah, to me it was pretty funny.

Of course, here's the kicker, I call last night to make sure the schedule was changed and to see if he had scheduled me on a different night other than Tuesday. Kyle (the dopey kids who I thought was an assistant manager, but now they've hired a new assistant manager, who's really a manager in training--I swear, these people are clueless) he answers after a lot of rings. He tells me no, as far as he knew Richard hadn't changed anything... he had only told Kyle, I would be in later, I said NO--I CAN NOT WORK ON TUESDAY!!! (I just don't understand what part of this they are not getting). So Kyle asks, so you're not coming in tonight--no (duh!). Well, then he just blows me off and essentially hangs up on me. I tried calling today after I subbed and after my other interview at Archiver's, but the line was busy (and for only 75¢ I can have qwest keep trying for me...). After that I fell asleep, for a much needed nap.

Since I didn't get to talk to anyone today, I was considering on my way home from my TSA interview tomorrow I would stop at the corporate office, it's somewhere in the other valley. I hate talking to Klint (who I keep calling Kevin cause he spells his name with a 'k' instead of a 'c') on the phone because he is constantly distracted. We'll see what happens...

Until next time...