Two weeks notice

As I have gotten to know Chuck he has become one of my favorite co-workers. He's fun and has this crazy, hyper sort of energy so when you work with him he makes things fun and you'll have a few laughs. He's unpredicatable so you never really know what he's going to do or say next--and while that character trait might make me a little nervous in "real life" I like it when I'm working as a cashier (one of the most boring jobs on the planet). It keeps things interesting. He's been working as a cashier since he was a freshman in high school and now he's getting ready to graduate. Since I am also quite a bit older (I won't do the math about exactly how many years older I am) then Chuck I have sort of gotten to have this big sisterly concern for him. As his tells me stories about wild nights and (excessive) underage drinking I smile or laugh but always tell him to be careful! For the past few months he has been talking about how much he hates working at the grocery store. I sort of got the feeling that this was more then just normal 'I hate my job' type venting. It sort of became a running joke that he was quitting. So every time we worked together he would say, 'Today's my last day'. And I would roll my eyes and laugh and say, 'You're not allowed to quit.' So when I came into work the other day and Chuck said, 'This is it--I'm leaving in two weeks' I laughed and said, 'You say that all time.' He said, 'No, I really mean it.' And this time he was serious. This time he had really given his two weeks notice. He says he'll come back in and visit but even if he does visit, it won't be quite the same. So I'll definitely miss him but I'm also really excited for him. He's a creative, energetic 18 year old kid with so many options and unlimited possibilities. It's really nice to see someone move on to something better. Good luck, Chuck!

Just for laughs

"One morning I shot an elephant in pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I'll never know."

-Groucho Marx

Just say no

A while back I wrote about how working nights had (negatively) impacted my eating habits (and honestly, they were not all that great to start with). So, I vowed to be healthier and thought if I wrote about it I would feel more accountable. Well, it's about 6 months later and I thought I would give you an update about my progress. ok--there has actually been very little progress. Why is it so hard to change my bad eating habits? I will say that this time of year I do tend to eat more vegetables and salads because produce is so readily available. But it is still the late night snacking that is a problem. What is it about peanut M & Ms? For some reason when you take an M & M and stick a peanut in the middle I consider it health food. Ok, not really but it seems easier to rationalize eating peanut M & Ms then some of those other candies on the candy rack. So anyway, it's a work in progress. Some days I will have the power to just say no to the potato chips and some days I buy a chocolate chip muffin. I guess the bottom line is I still have a lot of work to do. So here I am renewing my pledge to just say no to midnight snacks! And luckily the store just raised the prices of almost all of the candy on the rack which makes it easier to pass it up.

Three strikes and you're out

When you first start work at the grocery store you have an orientation and you get a handbook with all the company policies and rules. If you do something that violates company policy while you're at work you can get written up. Being written up is sort of a warning or a slap on the wrist to say 'Don't do this again.' The cashier supervisor is the one who monitors the cashiers and baggers and writes people up. So when a cashier or bagger does something wrong it is completely left up to the discretion of the cashier supervisor if they write someone up or not. If you get written up three times the manager can take further disciplinary action--which can be anything from suspension to termination. All in all I think this is a pretty fair policy--unless it is abused by power-hungry people who let just a little, tiny bit of authority go to their head. This is why I dislike Barbara so much. Barbara is a cashier supervisor who has taken the little bit of authority she has at the grocery store and run amuk! She is a petty, ridiculous person. She writes people up for the most minor infractions. I work with this kid who had just washed his work shirt and after it came out of the wash he forgot to put his name tag back on. He came into work without his name tag and Barbara wrote him up. Now, I understand that it is the job of the cashier supervisor to make sure that all the cashiers and baggers are doing their job and complying with company policy but I also think you have to be flexible and recognize when someone has just made an honest mistake. I feel justified in saying this because I was actually a cashier supervisor when I worked at the grocery store in high school so I have a general idea about how it works. As a cashier supervisor I made sure people did their work but I was never nasty or petty about it. And I feel like pointing out to Barbara that she gets a feeling of authority from a job that a high school student is qualified to do. Is running around and making everyone around you miserable worth that small rush you get from feeling like you're in charge? I don't think so. Barbara hasn't written me up...yet. It's probably because I don't work with her very often--in fact I deliberately do everything possible to make sure I don't work with her. I have actually given away shifts because I looked at the work schedule and noticed that I would be working with Barbara. I decided I would rather lose money and keep (what's left of) my sanity!

Paper or plastic?

In observance of Earth Day I wanted to write about something really easy you can do to "Go Green" when you are grocery shopping. A really simple thing you can do is to use reusable shopping bags when you go shopping. I keep a few cloth bags in my car so when I go shopping I have the bags with me already. Now this is not to say that I don't use plastic bags when I bag my groceries at the store but I try to fill them as full as I can so I only use as many as I need. Also, I never throw my plastic bags away when I get home. I save them and reuse them the next time I need a bag for something. So next time you're at the store and you're trying to decide 'paper or plastic' here are a few of the environmental pros and cons of both.

Paper Bags:

3 pros

1. Paper bags hold more--which means you get more groceries into each bag and use fewer of them.

2. Paper is biodegradable--if you compost paper it will break down and go from paper to a rich soil nutrient over a period of a couple months. (www.greenhouseneutralfoundation.org).

3. Paper bags are sturdier--Ever leave the grocery store with a plastic bag full of groceries only to have the handle break or the plastic tear on your way to the car? Or throw your plastic bags full of groceries into the back seat of your car and by the time you get home half of the groceries have spilled out? This doesn't seem to happen as often with paper bags because they are studier and stand upright.

3 cons

1. Environmental impact--It takes a lot of trees to make paper bags so paper bags contribute to mass deforestation which results in destroying the habitat of all the plants and animals that live in the forest. (www.greenhouseneutralfoundation.org) It can take over a century for nature to recover from even a small logging operation. (www.angelfire.com).

2. Recycling paper bags requires a process that

3. It requires a great deal of energy, chemicals and other resources to make paper and paper bags. The pulp is made from logs that have been dried and striped of bark and then the pulp is washed and bleached. This process requires thousands of gallons of clean water. (www.angelfire.com).


Plastic Bags:
3 pros
1. The process for recycling plastic is easier and requires less energy then the process for recycling paper. To recycle almost any kind of plastic it merely needs to be remelted and reformed. The remelting process will sterilize the plastic and it can reformed and reused many times over before it becomes brittle. (www.angelfire.com)

2.

3 cons

1. Plastic bags are typically made from oil, a nonrenewable resource. Plastics are a by-product of the oil-refining process, accounting for 4% of oil production around the globe. (www.greenhouseneutralfoundation.org)

2. Enviornmental impact--20% of the plastic bags used are not properly disposed of so they end up as debris and litter. Plastic bags that end up in the ocean cause a threat to marine life, when it's ingested it causes damage to ocean animals digestion. (www.enviroliteracy.org)

3.
So the next time you're asked "Paper or plastic" consider some of the pros and cons of both and make the decision that makes the most sense for you. Or better yet bring your own reusable bags!

Time is Money

I got sick of always being broke so I started trimming the fat from my budget and (trying) to watch how I spend my money. It doesn't always work but I think I'm getting better. Things really hit me when I went out to dinner at the Olive Garden the other night. I ordered a drink, an appetizer, and an entree. The bill was $22.75 (plus tip) and that just seemed really pricey to me. I got me thinking that to make the money to pay from this meal I would have to work for 2 1/2 hours at a job I hate and a crappy meal at the Olive Garden just isn't worth it. So I started to reevaluate how I spend my money. Like my gym membership. Is it really worth it? Well my membership is only $10 a month so I figured, 'Yeah I can handle that.' Or if I want to go see a movie I would have to work about an hour and 15 minutes to pay for the movie ticket. Of course, there's nothing wrong with spending money on a movie ticket--but I realized when you have to work for an hour and 15 minutes just to pay for a movie ticket (and I haven't even added in popcorn or candy or drinks) you want to make sure it's a good movie.

Putting things in terms of how many hours I would have to work to pay for them has really helped me prioritize how I spend my money. I decided when I spend my (very measly) paycheck I'm gonna spend the money on something I need or things I really, really want. My grandfather and my dad have explained this concept to me over the years and I understood it in theory. So by carefully budgeting and eating out less I'm going to try to put it into practice.

Time is money at the grocery store, too. I had a customer come through my line with a huge grocery order. It took me about 5 minutes to ring up her whole order and her total was $208.65. I make $8.15 an hour so for my take home pay to be $208 I would need to work for 28 hours! It was hard to believe that what would take me 28 hours to earn had only taken her 5 minutes to spend!

So thanks dad and pop! I get it (I think)

**This entry is dedicated to my grandfather-- a great guy, a financial wizard, and one of (if not the) smartest guy I know!**

Taking note of this Quote

"Early to bed, Early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."

~Benjamin Franklin