Monday, May 05, 2008

Do I have any readers left??

It has been a long two weeks....Or has it been three? Dh was out of town last week. He went on his business trip to Vegas that I was suppose to go on. :( Good thing i didn't have an airline ticket....
My 7th grader had testing for school last week so we were out a lot that week. By the end of the week i was feeling pretty good. My back/leg didn't hurt too much. Then I had my surgery on Friday. That didn't go so well, the procedure was suppose to turn the stone into sand. Unfortunately the stone was too hard and it didn't work. I go next week for another x-ray and then to see my urologist. I suppose then i will find out what the next step is....after the surgery my kidney area was tender and my back/leg hurt a lot! Today my kidney area feels better, i had PT this morning so my leg is feeling well enough for me to sit at the computer for a short amount of time. Mostly it hurts to stand, sit or walk. Several times a day i need to lay in bed until the pain lets up. I use that time to do my PT stretches.

On one of our trips out last week i decided to swing by Joann's to see what had become of it. I kinda expected it would be empty, but it was still sad to see how big and empty it was. I heard if i had gone the day before i would have been able to see my boss. It still feels funny that i never got to say good-bye to my co-workers. I have some of their email addresses, so eventually i will be able to write them.
Mostly i really liked working at Joann's. I loved the fabric! I loved looking at it, and it always looked great after we had it all tucked and fluffed. Although all that tucking had taken a toll on my hands, they were always dry and they had aged a lot because of all the sizing in the fabric. My first year was good. We were a pretty close group. Most of that time i worked with Elaine, she is the woman that passed away last month. She was older, and i tried my best to do more than my share of the work. Even though she was tough and could handle it. I felt like she needed a break. After she retired, i kept up that work attitude. I tried to do as much work as i could. I would normally talk with the person i was working with and we would decide who was going to do which jobs. No one ever seemed to like cleaning behind the counter. Which included sweeping, trash and general cleaning. I didn't mind doing that so i mostly did that plus i could do it quickly. In addition i still did the other stuff too.
Last October i had my review. My boss was such an *evil* woman. She chewed my butt like you wouldn't believe! I cried for days after that. She said such hurtful things to me and accused me of not doing any work. She also said that no one liked working with me. I hardly ever worked with her so i was naive to her tactics. I just sat there and cried instead of sticking up for myself. It wouldn't have made much of a difference since she wouldn't believe anything i said anyway. In the end she gave me a raise, because of the few things i did do right....
I liked working there to much to quit. Besides, i hardly ever saw her. I just had to deal with the mind games. She only scheduled me with certain people, never with the ones i liked best. I started writing down everything i did during my shift. At the end of the night i would speak to my supervisor since i was scheduled with her a lot after that. If not her then a Mgr or a co-worker with more seniority. And Hey! they discovered that I really WAS doing work! Eventually I found out that no one said those horrible things about me. She didn't have anything on me so she took the things people did say about me and twisted them in her evil mind to what she wanted them to be. She had such power over everyone that she even told the other mgrs to NOT speak to me! Especially one certain mgr. who she tried to fire because of me. I was just an excuse, there was no reason. After a few months that mgr was rather stressed about her job and the flood gates opened and she spilled all kinds of info to me. It was all so stupid, again mind games of a controlling lunatic.
Once liquidation started that boss was transfered to another store. (sorry BTEG) Life as we knew it was over!!! The sun really did shine in that place. lol It was strange how much more relaxed everyone was. We still worked really hard, and in return we got praise and appreciation. I was shocked when a lot of the responsibilities of the fabric side was place on my shoulders. And at the end of the night i would hear "good job! and Thank you!" We *never* heard that before! We all seemed to grow closer during that time.
We all were worked to the max and for almost 3 months i saw my co-workers more than dh. :( We decided that i would continue to work as many hours as possible knowing there was an end in sight. Once that end was near, is when i started feeling poorly. I was really upset that I wasn't able to work my last day. A customer had a strange analogy. She told me that loosing her Joann store was like loosing a friend. In a strange sort of way it's true. I met so many nice people working there, both employees and customers. Most of them had planned on being there that last day. I would have been able to say good-bye to them all. But the Dr had other plans. lol I suppose it was easier that way. Saying good-bye is never easy. I hope to keep in touch with some of them, but as life happens, I don't expect i will.
Life does go on...and there are other Joann stores. But not at CityView..... Which is a good thing! CV is having so many crazy problems. Who's idea was it to build a shopping center on a landfill!? Even though we were told we were closing due to low sales, in the end it was because of the landfill/methane problems and shoplifting......I no longer have a reason to go there. That place just isn't safe. I wonder where another Penn Station is? :) That is the only place i will miss... lol

4 comments:

Barb the Evil Genius said...

Glad to see you back, even if you are not completely well yet.

Anonymous said...

Welcome back! You were missed! Hope you get back to 100% real soon. Take care.

Marie N. said...

Glad to see you back on line. I hope you do get to keep incontact with your Joann's friends. There is a Penn Station by our house! I'll have to remember you like that place.

Saska said...

Good to see you! Glad you have some good memories of working with the good people at JoAnn's.
No matter where you work...there is the good and the bad...and those who can be REAL ugly people.

Hope you get to feeling better.