Chapter 6: Bills bill and more bills
So my house had gotten some new siding and insulation in the summer of 2007 and I was really excited. Now the only problem was how was I going to manage the bills so I could keep my house and all that wonderful new vinyl siding and cellulose. Well Ron, my assistant manager, knew of my financial situation and was generous enough to give me as many hours as he could which helped out quite a bit. The computer jobs were coming at a pretty steady pace as well. But alas, it still wasn’t quite enough to pay all the bills. That’s were the credit cards came in. I know what some of you are thinking right now. Paying your bills with a credit card is a horrible idea if you don’t have the income to pay them back. Well you would be right. After a few months of that the credit cards were almost dried up and I needed money.
I had thought of selling some of my stuff on eBay but I took a look around my house and realized that no one would want my crap. I had thought of selling my plasma at the blood bank but found out I’d need to go every week and I’m sure that the homeless drunks I’d be sitting next to at the clinic would have wonderful stories as the nurse who barely passed her medical exams jabbed my arm over and over again trying to find a vein. I even thought of selling other bodily fluids for money. I thought to myself, “Hey…. I’m going to be doing that at home anyway, why not just do it in a cup and make a few bucks.” But then I realized that there is a chance that one day down the road, some boy or girl could come knocking at my door calling me daddy. No thanks.
I knew I needed a full time job, but at the Highland store, it was a rare thing to get a full time position as a regular associate. You could get a management position, but you had a better chance of getting struck by lightning than have a certain unnamed DPS manager retire like he should have done years ago to let someone better and smarter and funnier take his place. Well just as I thought I would drown in debt and have to declare bankruptcy and even worse, move back in with my parents, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. My company was opening up 2 new stores in the area. One in Michigan City and one in Valpo. I got super excited because that meant management positions were plentiful and I might have a chance to keep my house after all.
The trouble with the company I work for is that management positions open up at other stores every so often but we don’t hear about it until it’s too late. I’m sure that if I was friends with anyone at Hobart or Calumet City, I could have snagged a DPS manager position over the years, but who wants to be friends with them?
So I had two stores to choose from to run their DPS. Michigan City was farther than Valpo, but they were opening sooner, and sooner was better for me. My tech manager Ellen was going to be promoted to that store as an assistant manager which was good for me too. The drive would have sucked ass, and the area is crappy so I was still torn between the two stores. Work in a crappy area but get promoted sooner, or wait a few months and work at a nicer store. Then my decision was made for me. Krista, AKA: Big Fat Smelly was transferring to Michigan City. Valpo here I come!
So I looked on the computers every day for the posting for the DPS manager position in Valpo. Days went by, weeks went by, nothing. I saw positions for a regular dept manager for Valpo, but nothing for DPS. I was getting nervous. “Did they already hire someone? Am I too late? Am I going to have to go to Michigan City and work with Big Fat Smelly again?” Well as it turns out, the store manager in Valpo never posted an opening for a DPS manager. He only posted regular dept manager positions and he figured that he would get a feel for who would be best in the DPS and go from there. I found this out by accident from Tod, one of our tech guys who posted for the tech manager position. Paul, the old Hobart store manager, and newly promoted Valpo store manager, had called him and asked him if he wanted to run the DPS. Apparently he thought just anybody could run the DPS. Not a good sign.
Well as it turns out, four associates from our store had applied for management positions at Valpo. Tod, Stacy, Beth, and myself. Man that would have been sweet. It would have been great to have some familiar faces over there. Well about a week or two after I applied I heard that Paul was coming to our store to interview all of us that had applied. He was supposed to be coming on a day that I was not working. Now looking back, I know that just because I wasn’t working on the day he was doing interviews didn’t mean that I was going to miss my chance and not get a promotion, but at the time I was freaking the fuck out. Once again, I had visions of losing my house and having to file for bankruptcy all because of a scheduling conflict. Well as it turns out, nobody he was going to interview was working that day so he picked a day that we would all be there. I started my shift and was helping a few customers in the copy center while Paul was interviewing Tod. I was a little nervous because I wasn’t sure how long the interviews would take or what kinds of questions he was going to ask. It had been over 6 and a half years since my last interview and I couldn’t remember a thing that happened during the interview back then. As I was daydreaming I heard a voice behind me, “So Montyp2000…. Are you ready?”(On a side note to everybody: Don’t walk up behind a guy and say, “Are you ready?” It’s creepy and gives me a vision of prison rape.) It was Paul. My time had come. The long journey back to the receiving office where the interview was going to be held was the longest walk of my life. This was my only shot at keeping my house. I hope I don’t screw it up.
No comments:
Post a Comment