Where to Start? I guess Chronological would be best.
12/29/2003
We are starting at December 17th. I did my usual morning stuff looking for a new job and went into the Apartment office to train my replacement P. at noon. She wasn’t there when I arrived, she was “out to lunch” scheduled to be back shortly. She arrived back from lunch and I mentioned I had forgotten to tell her the codes to check the voicemail.
She said she needed to go potty and headed into the restroom. She comes out of the restroom and says “gee, I forgot something” grabs her purse and heads out the door. I figure she left something in her car. After about 10 minuets she is not back. I head out the door and look in the parking lot for her car, it is not there. OK I figure she left something at the restaurant she ate at and give her a bit of time. After about 45 minuets, H. my co worker and I look at each other and shrug, don’t know what happened to P. The boss calls in and I enquire if he had heard from P. Nope he responds, he is as confused as we are. She is not answering her cell phone; I don’t have a home phone number for her and am just bewildered. H and I talk a bit and I ask her if anything was wrong with her as she trained her in the morning. Nope, H. says. She had a lot of questions things went fine. I stayed positive and nothing seemed wrong.
Well P. finally surfaces around 4:45 with a call to the boss. She says she doesn’t want the job. She just got overwhelmed and didn’t want to work in a small office. She had just left a similar position. Blah, Blah, Blah it is all about her. The boss tells her she needs to return the keys to the office right away. I sat and waited as she battled traffic back to the office. She arrives at the office and she and the boss talk a bit. Again she says it is all her, she can’t concentrate, doesn’t think the job is a match, it is all about her. She leaves and my head is still spinning. I tell the boss that the good news is I have not landed a job yet and we can go to plan B. what ever that is. I will be in the office at Noon on Thursday.
About 5 minuets later, P calls the boss on the phone. I have no idea what was said but can infer a few things by his actions the next day.
I arrive at the office and things get even weirder. H has a shocked look on her face as I walk into the office. Boss is milling around my desk and says to me: I need you to cut H’s last paycheck, she will be finishing up the day and will not be back. He has let her go. Oh, by the way, when you cut checks, make your last one out. Your last day will be Friday the 19th. I want A, B, C and D done before you leave. OK, this sucks I think to myself. H. is out of work, I am being let go early and what ever the “out to lunch” P. said must have sent boss over the top.
I complete as many tasks as I can on Thursday afternoon, my head still spinning a bit. I make arrangements with boss to be back in the office at Noon on Friday. The phone rings about 9:30 on Friday morning, it is the boss wondering where I am, he has been looking out for me. I remind him we had planned on Friday at noon since he had a meeting in the morning. Well, I have nothing to do so I tell him I will be over in 10 minuets. I head to the office and notice that the locks have been changed. OK that’s why he was looking for me, I didn’t have a way into the office. Boss inquires if I had been in the office after hours on Thursday evening. Nope, I went to yoga and headed home, no reason to go to the office. Well, someone left the lights on. Not me I respond.
I finish up the assigned tasks he had for me, A, B, C and D. It is about 3:30 and I give him his keys back. It was a little sad for me, 5 years and 2 months at the same job and it ended with a not so glamorous exit. I took my little folder, my photos, a few coffee cups and some other personal items and stashed them into a grocery sack and headed out the door. Chapter completed.
V. moved in over the weekend. We had been discussing this arrangement a few moths back. She had made plans to be in Europe for a few months, but those got changed at the last minuet. She had given notice to her landlord and didn’t have a place to go. She had checked out a few other places and arrangements but it was almost the end of the month. She needed a place to stay. Well, things just worked out and we began moving her stuff to my place. She now resides in what used to be my office, the second bedroom. We ended up combining furniture, kitchen stuff and all the assorted crap. Thank goodness for the barn, it is a great storage facility. Some of her stuff, some of my stuff in storage and we now fit into the little house. We are almost out of box city, there are still a few things to be sorted out but we will deal with those later.
OK so V moves in over the weekend, I don’t have a job any longer and Christmas is coming up quickly. I had an offer of a ride to Florida to my Dad’s place. One of my friends was on the way to visit her family. I thought about it for a while. I could rent a car and drive from Dad’s to Mom’s and end up with a little vacation. I looked into car rentals and airline flights back home and it just wouldn’t work for me. It was too expensive, I didn’t thing the timing was right so I decide to stay here for Christmas.
Monday night, I am dog tired from helping V. move in but decide to keep my volunteer commitment to the ID section. I head off to the big cop shop downtown. When I arrive, I am told that C. wants to see me as soon as I got there. She is the boss of the section and I am a little concerned. I was thinking I must have screwed something up. It isn’t often that volunteers get called in to the boss’s office. Well, I was wrong in my thoughts. C. has offered me a job! It is a part time position, I will be working in the same section, it is temporary but it will keep me going of a few months. Wasn’t that a GREAT Christmas present! I call the HR person on Tuesday morning but he is headed out of the office for the holiday and C. had to fill out some paperwork so I could get on payroll. HR and I agree to meet on Friday Morning at 8:00 A.M. to get me processed and into the system to start work on Monday, today. Oh, I had to get fingerprinted AGAIN, how many times is that this year?
I have a lot to be thankful for this Christmas. I managed to locate a new part time job, I have a new roommate and I have great friends. I am amazed at how all this came together in 10 days. I keep wondering to my self, “God, did you have this all planed out from the beginning?” Who would have thought that my little volunteer gig I have been doing for the last year on and off would lead to an opportunity for me? I am awfully grateful, a bit humbled but looking forward to the New Year, just 3 short days away.
