That Time of Year

It's been a little less than a month since my last update. It could be better, but it could be worse and I shall endeavor to improve it. There was a hasty and exhausting two and a half weeks between my start at UPS and the Thanksgiving Holiday that provided a respite from the tiring and early work.

During that time I achieved very little, besides going to work which I suppose is an achievement in and of itself. I fell into a pattern of coming home, eating lunch and falling asleep again for two to four hours, which lead to difficulty sleeping. I also got stuck working a series of cars that I strongly dislike due to the size and unevenness of the loads and the fact that the last car is off the dock. My tenure with that area is over, and I'm working a set of bins that have been pretty good to me. My first hour is vigorous, but then I have gotten far enough ahead of my work that the rest of the shift is very easy. There was some trouble with misloads earlier this week which I took too to heart, but the following days had Zero Misloads, and this impressed the Powers That Be. I have been used to help train a new hire, which is silly, but oh well.

I believe I witnessed someone get fired and subsequently escorted from the building. A supervisor asked me to go to the end of the line to assist someone who was swamped; this was odd because we were all so far ahead of our workload that no one should be swamped. I found that the reason the employee was behind was because he was being questioned by five Guys In Suits. G.I.S. are always a bad sight, as they are five or six paygrades above someone in my position, and a gathering of this magnitude, I found through the grapevine, is often an indicator that something has suspiciously gone missing. After a few minutes of this, my supervisor told me i would be finishing up this section, and a few minutes after that event, the GIS "walked with" the employee to who-know's-where.

As I was getting to leave I was stopped by Terry, the Boss of My Bosses, and informed in a clandestine fashion that while he cannot schedule me that early, if I were to show up at 1:30, I might be clocked in. I'm gonna get up at Midnight, so, that should be fun... Looking forward to the overtime, hah. If this pattern continues eventually I'll be there so early that it's a normal person's job. Also been giving some thought to getting my CDL and aiming to be a driver. A lot of people have been working on the boxline for three or more years, and while I can wholly understand this as a result of the union and seniority being a major piece in promotion, I'm inclined to do whatever I can to improve my station.

UPS's Tuition Aid works in a reimbursement fashion, which is fine, if you have funds to be reimbursed. However, for Ivy Tech (a local community college) they pay direct. Ivy Tech also costs <3,000 a year, which s what UPS provides. So, if IUPUI doesn't give me a good shake on Financial Aid for the upcoming semester, I plan to go to IT and work on courses that will be transferrable to IUPUI for a degree in Psychology. It's the second degree I've always imagined working towards, so a change in sequence is no big deal and probably a good staging ground for figuring out how this life will work (with UPS and school).

I've found that I really like Christmas sights, sounds, smells, etc, but without snow, they can be fairly depressing. That being said, snow and the bitter-ass cold in the house is not pleasant. I'm thinking (read: fairly certain) that I'm going to buy a small, real tree for the foot of the stairs in the basement so that I can enjoy the smell. Sam and Steph use a fake tree because their grandkids come for Christmas in late January and the tree will be dead by then, so, for the sake of their investment.

Thursday I think I started to find a pattern that will yield some good results for peak season and me, in regards to accomplishing something. I'm looking out at a field of long strings of 10+ days working with single days in between off. I'm going to go to Financial Aid monday after work to try and get the last of the big stressful things off my back before my birthday. Not sure what I'm going to do. May go take myself to see a movie (sad because im going alone? happy because its my birthday?) make myself a pineapple upside down cake (lame to make your own birthday cake, but I cant rationalize a way its ok to ask steph or sam) and maybe just get more sleep and not be worried about anything.

In a related thought, I'm eagerly planning out gifts for everyone. Just zip me an email if Mom hasnt been helpful in giving you any ideas, or the address, and as always, your generosity means so much. I am trying to avoid it, but a few of you may be receiving Winter-Een-Mas presents instead of Christmas presents. Winter-een-mas is a made up holiday, ostensibly celebrated by every male between the ages of 8 and 15, wherein the winter break is taken up wholly by the constant play of videogames, only breaking for the most basic survival needs and the occasional nod at hygiene. What it allows me to do is actually just send gifts after I get my paycheck wth all that lovely lovely overtime...