How to politely tell your job to pound sand...

Dear Cup Above Management and Staff,

As of Monday, August 9th, this letter serves as my two weeks’ notice to conclude my employment with The Cup Above, my final date of available scheduled work time being Monday, August 23rd. Should management decide to terminate my employment prior to that date, I will respect that decision with no ill will. I have performed all duties assigned to me to the best of my abilities and have come to the decision that this is not the area of work I’m willing to dedicate myself to long term. The diminishing scheduled work hours are not conducive to my financial needs, the basic operation of the business is run too inefficiently in my opinion, and I feel my qualifications would be better used elsewhere. I am confident management will find a suitable replacement or divide my shifts to my fellow employees who need the hours. I appreciate the opportunity to try and help build a new business from the ground up and will take these experiences into the next phase of my career search.
Sincerely,

Amanda Hill

-------
It's a shame, it looked so promising in the beginning. And what's a total bummer is I really like the people I work with, and most of the customers. It's just run too inefficiently, and they just promoted a girl to manager so now it's going to sound like that's what made me pissy, and it's so not! But I can't take it anymore. My schedule for this week is a total of 9 hours, with the probability of being less because the owner sends someone home if business is dead. And business has been quite dead as of late. So $8.00 an hour (let's ignore the fact I got the petty raise along with another worker) and so the math: $8 p/hr x 9 hrs = $72. And that's before taxes and all that fun stuff. And without getting sent home early. Now it takes about $80 a week to fill up the truck's gas tank, and it's doing double duty because sometimes Mike's schedule isn't cohesive with mine. When you look at it in a general manner, we're SPENDING money for me to work at that place. Let's not even mention the mental waste. So even if another job doesn't come along as quickly as I'd like, at least I can have peace of mind and not being wasting precious gas. I can be a damn good employee, but I will not be taken advantage of.

MP3 Killed the Radio Star

Does anyone listen to the radio anymore? I remember calling in to my favorite station to request my favorite song, praying I'd get through. Jamming to JoJo's Top 5 at 9 and Backstreet Boys had gotten the number 1 slot. Being one of the first million to listen to the world premier of a song. Getting impatient with commercials and pressing all the buttons on the car stereo until something better came on.

And now? We live in an iWorld. Shoot me! I own a Zune, which I find to be a little less mainstream and Jobsian, but I too, have contributed to the death of radio. We no longer listen to mindless DJ chatter on our rides to work, we're zoning out to what iTunes tells us is the latest and greatest! We aren't active in our search for new music, we download what we're "suggested" to and just roll with it until a new suggestion pops up. Am I really the only one who enjoyed trolling the radio dial listening to the cacophony of talk, music, and what some claimed to be music, continually building on my musical tastes? And who remembers the sound of static and stations crossing over into each other?! Ah, memories.

Sometimes I go to the cursed Wikipedia search box and type in things like "German pop music" or "French rock music" just to get names of artists and bands I've never had a chance to even hear of in my life. And granted, 90% of the time I've got no clue as to what they're singing about, but I can at least sit back and appreciate the musicianship of the song. I love Ke$ha, Black Eyed Peas, and Zac Brown Band as much as the next drone, but I want to maintain my freedom of choice!

Hey Zune owners, did you know there's a radio function on there? And it's absolute crap! You can get maybe five stations in your area, total. Why would anyone want to listen to the radio when you've got a traffic report, Amber alert, contest winner-free music library at your finger tips. I'd like to complain about this feature that they didn't consider putting much usefulness into, but what would be the point? Why buy an MP3 player for public music, right?

So what's the recommendations for today? "Not Afraid" by Eminem, "OMG" by Usher and will.i.am, "Nothin on You" by B.o.B and Bruno Mars. I'm thinking of downloading a test of the emergency broadcast system, just for nostalgia's sake.

4.28.10 Sleep Talking

"Don't forget Bug's Land."

I can only attribute this to being a Disney's California Adventure reference. However, there was nothing before nor after to give me any freaking clue as to what the heck my husband's actually talking about.


PS- I'd also like to make a minor mention that I was in a deep sleep last night in preparation for my first day of job training, he decides to tickle my back. I literally growled at him. I don't know what good it did since he was apparently in a sleep just as deep, only he didn't have to wake up.

Buying a house: I'd rather pull my wisdom teeth without anesthesia.

Buying a house has been the most frustrating thing I've been a participant to in a while. I hope it's because we're family, and that's why my dad is being so lax with this. I mean, I really hope he doesn't have his clients call him to remind him of things he needs to to do to carry this on. It's so annoying and I should have seen it coming, since he doesn't do anything for free. But it is ridiculous. If we hadn't need him gifting his commission to us, I definitely would NOT have used him a realtor. I'd rather shoot myself in the foot. It feels like we're getting closer, and then something happens on his end to take us ten steps back. If this doesn't go through, I'm giving up all hope and pushing for the apartment.

Sigh, a still less sleep for me.

Mike: "Uh oh uh oh uh oh."
Me: "What?"
Mike: "It's sliding."
Me: "What, the sheet?"
Mike: "No, whatever's in my lap."
Me: "That's Trixie" (as I move her for fear he might try to crush her again)
Mike: "No the rabbit or the hamster..."
Me: "No, she's a DOG."
(Mike grabs his flashlight and starts looking in his lap and around his legs.)
Me: "NOW what?!"
Mike: "I don't know!"


Later, when I'm just about finally in a deep sleep......
Mike: *pokes Mandi in the side of the head* "It's yellow."




Can I just say....? AAARRRRGGGHHHHH! Between him and the kitten I'm getting majorly irritable from sleep deprivation!

Quick sleep talking update

I had to verify this episode was actually sleep talking before I posted it. Sometimes you just never know.

I felt Mikey get up, heard him get his flashlight, then watched him go to the foot of his side of the bed on his hands and knees to look at the floor by that corner. Then all I hear is "Oh no, oh no, oh no" repeatedly. After about thirty "oh no's" he moves around a bit, shuts off the flashlight and climbs back under the covers. He doesn't remember this, so I'm assuming it was just his mind going crazy again. All I know is I'm glad he was wearing boxers because I would have gotten a face full of ass.

The Mayor's Response

One thing I will say in certain favor of Lake Elsinore City officials, they are very expedient in their responses to my correspondence. Here is Mayor Melendez's reply to my email regarding the Lake Elsinore Casino's mural.

Re: Lake Elsinore Casino Mural
Thursday, April 8, 2010 10:07 PM
From:
"Melissa Melendez"
To:
"Mandi DesChene"

Dear Amanda,

Thank you for taking the time to write. Judging by your email, I'd say you feel pretty passionately about this issue! Well, let me just say that the owners and city staff are working out the details. It is considered an advertisement, much like a sign, and they just need to make sure they're in compliance (ie: permits, variances). The actual look of the artwork is not what the city is really concerned with. Some resident are that's for sure, but that's not our business. Robin Golden, who did the artwork, is amazingly talented and did do a great job. Of course that pales in comparison to the artwork she did at a local high school, wow! You should see that work, unbelievable.

So, again, thank you for writing to me. I've only had complaints so far about this issue. It's nice to get a different perspective too!

Warm Regards,

Mayor Melissa Melendez