Wednesday, July 5, 2006

Good news at work...and a little rant about "knitting"

Well, there aren't going to be any more day shifts at the Ice Gardens for a while. At least probably not until August, unless we get new owners in the meantime (which could apparently happen pretty much any day now) and they decide we need to be there in the daytime. Anyway, this does cut back on the number of shifts available to give the six of us who work the desk. My boss called me up to her office today to explain the situation to me. She's decided to split the shifts that are available in the remainder of July between only three people. Guess what? I am one of those three people! This is also the first day my boss has been back at work after having been away for about three weeks, and apparently she has heard good things about me, so that's encouraging. She did also hear about my "knitting" on the job, but like I've said before, everyone understands that the day shifts are pretty much empty of something to do (and that the evening shifts can be very quiet at times, too, though not for the whole shift or there would be no need to have a Guest Services department at all), so that didn't seem to bother her at all (it only came up because when I was up in the office, one of the guys there jokingly basically told her I'd been a horrible employee during her absence...and asked me if I'd finished making him his scarf yet). So...they like me, they really like me! My boss also made me one of the three people who will be getting shifts because 1.) I am one of the people who have given her the most availability, and 2.) of the six people who work our desk, only two of us don't have another job, and that includes me; she feels less bad about cutting the hours of the people who have another source of income and worse about cutting the hours of the two of us who are relying on the Ice Gardens for our school $/etc. In any case, I am feeling encouraged by this turn of events...even if it does mean I'll only have evening shifts again for a while. Oh, and the three of us who will be on the schedule will pretty much have nights that are "our" nights, so I'll be having a more regular and predictable schedule for a while, hooray! So far the plan is that my nights will be Monday, Thursday and Friday, but I'll have to see what the official word is when I get the new schedule. I have to say I will miss the day shifts, since they had come with the ability to get paid for doing pretty much anything I wanted to do (so long as I could do it at the Guest Services desk) due to lack of business, but I do think it is better to get paid for an honest day's work after all. I'll just have to do my crocheting elsewhere.

Speaking of crocheting...I have to say that since I started working on my afghan again and doing it at the Ice Gardens, I have been amazed at how many people do not know what crochet is...or even what an afghan is (where "afghan" is not a reference to an Afghani or anything/one else from Afghanistan)! Pretty much everyone who has seen me working on this project has asked me, "What are you knitting?" [emphasis mine, of course]. I think there were only two exceptions and they were both female (and I think both were attending the real estate college that runs some classes out of rooms they rent from the restaurant upstairs). Okay, people, for clarification: knitting uses (at least) two straight pointy needles (though sometimes they are joined by a cable, granted); if you see only one needle being used and it has a hook on the end, you are looking at someone who is doing crochet. Also, an afghan is a small kind of blanket...this one will not really be big enough to call an actual blanket, but it will be fine to put over one while one is watching TV or even napping. Yes, the piece you see me working on at the moment may only be a few inches wide, but there are seven strips in the afghan I am making...and the one I'm working on now is strip number five. If I do two rows a day (which I'm doing pretty good at so far), I'll be done by the end of the first week in August, and maybe even sooner. It is true that I have been working on this afghan on and off for the last ten years, but I am almost done and this is the most consistently I've ever worked on it since the first time I put it aside, so I think I really am going to finally finish it this summer, hooray! Besides, with four-and-a-half strips out of seven already done, it is too late to call it quits and toss it out.

Well, that's it from me for now. Good night, everyone (as she studiously avoids looking at the time since she knew she got home from work when it was technically morning)...

Oh, by the way, I know I haven't added categories to my more recent entries yet. I'll do that, um, later...yes, later.

3 comments:

WestsideKef said...

Funnily enough, (I mean, since I am a guy,) I do know the difference, and can probably do the basic "moves" (maneuvers? actions?) for both.

shh, don't tell anyone

Emma said...

So does that mean we'll be sticking with Wednesday nights then? Oh congrats on the ego boost btw. :D

Joy said...

I think they're called "stitches," Kef ;). But your secret is safe with me...so long as nobody else reads your comment ;).

As for Bible study night, Emma, I'll get back to you on that in a non-Blogger-comment format :). Thanks for your congratulations; yes, every boost to the ego does help, though I sometimes wonder if it is vain of me to keep a blog :).