I had a really good day at work yesterday. Most of the calls were people just asking for balances and due dates and they all were very friendly. I arrived home and noticed that I had received the "Juno" soundtrack that Lisa had made for me (thanks). I haven't listened to it yet, but I'm sure I'll like it. I also noticed that there was a letter from Service New Brunswick, I was pretty excited to see it already (I wasn't expecting a letter for another month or more). I opened it up and it said that the interviews had been completed and I had not been added to the inventory. It went on to say that I should apply for future opportunities if I feel I have the skills needed. I was disappointed, but now that I've had time to reflect on it, I'm not as disappointed. I think that they didn't add me because I wanted a full time, long term/perm position. I probably wasn't as flexible as they want. I don't want a job that only guarantees me 12.5 hours a week (part-time) or a term position, where I'm unemployed again in a matter of mths. I suppose there were people that were willing to take those kinds of positions. Whatever...I have an O.K job for now and I'm going to keep looking. maybe if I apply for another government position in the near future I won't have to take the testing again since I just took it. Alicia and I went to Walmart yesterday before work. I got alot of junk food. I also got a great caramel machiatto from starbucks. It was really nice to do something other than work. Broke the week up alittle bit. I'm looking forward to the weekend though, sleeping in...watching movies....eating some junk food....mmm.....weekends!

I had a wonderful birthday! Sam took me to Smitty's for dinner, we had appetizers, drinks, a nice dinner and I got a free piece of cheesecake because it was my birthday. Sam and I shared it, but were already full and barely ate half. After dinner we looked around the mall for alittle while. I went into Suzy Sheir and tried some things on. I ended up getting a mathcing blazer and pants and a couple of new t-shirts. The pants and blazer are black with dark brown lines in it. I barely noticed until I put them up to one another. This is great because my coat is black and my boots and purse are brown. We then went over to the movie, which turned out to be funny, a good pick. When we got into the cab Sam gave our address and said with a stop at Sobeys. I asked him what he needed to get at Sobeys? I couldn't imagine him wanting to pick up a cake, I was way to full for that. He came out later with a really pretty bouquet of flowers. It had roses, babies breath, and some pretty purple flowers mixed thorughout. Mom had asked him to surprise me with something earlier (so I knew there was something planned) but I had figured he would just wait until Wednesday to get whatever for me. I recieved calls from mom, susan and Jackie (all of who sung me happy birthday) and got a card from Irene. I called her to thank her for it and she suggested I give Wayne a call to thank him for the Christmas picture that he had made for me (from my NYC trip). I don't even know his number! He's never made any attempt to contact me, why would I thank him for something he gave me a month ago(which I thanked him for when he dropped them off)? Whatever.... I went into work yesterday and the day went by very quickly, I was looking forward to having today and tomorrow off. Sam didn't have to work unit 4pm today, so I treated us to steak and eggs for breakfast this morning. I have a cold though and I am feeling very stuffy and congested. Sam picked me up some Advil cold and sinus yesterday, so I'm hoping that will help. I'm going to go make a cup of tea and possibly something to eat.... :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!Happy Birthday toooo meee! Haappy Biirthdaay dear Krista! Happy Birthday to meeee!! I slept in this morning and watched some t.v for a bit. I then called Smitty's to make reservations for this evening. Sam is treating me to dinner and a movie for my birthday. I think I'll buy a new top or sweater with those wonderful gift certificates that Richard gave me for Christmas. We are going to see the movie "Mad Money", it sounds funny. It is pretty cold out today, so we'll be cabbing both ways. I still have to take Gizmo for a walk, but she's a big wimp and usually stops and looks up at me with those big brown doggy eyes about 5mins into our walk and needs to be picked up because her paws are cold. Thank goodness she only weighs 10-12 pounds. Thanks for all the nice birthday wishes on Facebook! Work went by really fast yesterday, we barely had any wait time between calls at all, just one on top of the next. I like it when it is busy, but not That busy. But this is short week anyway, so it won't take long until I get another couple of glorious days off. Anyway I'm gonna go get Sam to make me a (birthday) coffee (I am totally playing the birthday thing up all day), write later...:)

I got my shift bid and it is exactly what I was hoping for! It will start on Feb 2-29, and I will work 12:30-9pm with 9-9:45pm double overtime. I will be able to catch the bus there and back. I figure I can just goof around on the Internet for 15-20mins before going outside to wait for the bus at 10:20pm. My supervisor came around to my team and told us all that we are getting a 50cent raise as of Feb 2/08! That just made my day yesterday! I also got my three month review yesterday (a month late) and I am doing well in everything. My supervisor said that there is always room for improvement, but I'm right on track and consistently improving. I'm very excited. Yesterday there were cookies and juice as a for the staff as a thank you for everyone working extra hours while we're so busy. Last night I met Sam after work and Sam, Tara, Matt and I all sat around drinking for awhile after the restaurant was closed. At about 12am they decided that they wanted to go downtown to Sweetwaters. I didn't really see the point because it would almost be closing time by the time we got there anyway. Sam and I had planned to go get groceries and rent a movie, but they all decided to go out to the bar. Sam offered to pay for everything so I agreed. We left Mikes at about 12:30am, stopped at our apartment so I could drop off my enormous purse, then went to Matt's house so he could change his shirt, it was dirty from working all day. We finally arrived downtown at Sweetwaters at 1amish. We got in and Sam bought us a couple of drinks and we went to hang out by the bar. The floor was really wet and Sam slipped and smashed his beer bottle into his hand. He has a great big gouge out of his hand, I told him that he probably should get stitches. By the time he got his hand all cleaned up and stopped the bleeding the bar was closing and everyone was herded towards the coat check. That took forever and getting a cab took forever, so we didn't end up getting home until after 3am. What a waste of a night. We could have gotten a couple drinks and rented a movie...*snuggled*...and gone to bed without injury at a decent hour. Oh well. Today I walked up the hill with him when he needed to go to work. I just got groceries at Zellers to avoid the crowded grocery store and so I could bring Gizmo. Usually I walk home with Gizmo, but I had a ton of groceries, so I called a cab. They always laugh when I call a cab to Zellers for myself and little dog. Next week I only work three days! i took My Birthday (Jan 22) and Jan 23rd off. So I go to work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off, work Thursday and Friday, and then it's the weekend again! Woohoo! I love weekends. I'm going to go make something for my supper....:) Happy January!

I love having weekends off, I'm low on the shift bid because I missed time for grampy's funeral and they didn't score any of my calls (so I got no extra quality points). I'm hoping that I'll still be able to get a decent shift though. I was low in the first shift bid (it was randomly done) and I still was able to work 12:30pm-9pm (with Thurdays off). I think I'll select the shift that ends at 10pm as my first preference. That way I'll be able to take the bus there and back. Yesterday and today I slept in until 12:45pm. I've been so tired lately that it really was needed. I work 12:30pm-10pm all this week. I think I've been approved to have my birthday off, it says pass, but I am on a wait list for the 21st and there were no hours available, so I knew I wouldn't get approved. I checked and there were hours available for jan 23rd/08 so I put my request in and got approved 5-10mins later. Now I have to figure out how to cancel my request for jan 21/08 without deleteing the pass that I got for jan 22/08. I emailed staffing, but they never got back to me about it.
Sam and I went to see Juno last night. It was a really funny movie, I loved the sarcasm of the juno character. Those gift certificates I got from Richard come in handy. So far I've gotten some groceries at Walmart and paid for Sam and I to go to a movie. And I still have lots of money left on them too. I went to Zellers earlier Saturday and used the gift certificate that Helen had gotten me. (again picking up groceries). I really have to keep track of how much I put into the cart and start considering that I live further from Zellers1 I always weigh myself down with groceries and the cheap bags start to rip about a block from the apartment! Thankfully I have my massive purse and can transfer some things into it. and use the bags to replace the ones that have ripped. I got paid pretty well, so before I met Sam at work before the movie I went to the liquer store and picked up some kahlua and vodka and some b52 shots for Sam and I to put in our coffee. Last week went by really quick since I took wednesday off. I hope this week goes by as fast. Anwya I'm going to go make another coffee....:)

Today was Great!! I slept in.....I mean Really slept in. Sam had to go to Saint John yesterday because I guess his brother is really sick and he wanted to be there for his family. So last night little Miss Gizmo took it upon herself to guard the apartment. I mean guard, she was up and down on and off the bed all night patrolling the apartment, doing her rounds I guess and occasionally she would start barking to warn off any potential intruders. So...needless to say I didn't get the rest that I could have, but I was able to sleep in. I caught the bus downtown and walked around Kings Place for awhile before heading over to my interview. I got there at about 3:05pm (I left early to get there b/c I wasn't sure exactly where it was), it turned out to be in the exact spot that maps.com had inticated and so I waited for about 25-30mins before my interview. I looked through all the little pamphlets and noticed one with a picture of a woman wearing a headset in what appeared to be another call centre. I was going for an interview to become a customer service representative, but the ad hadn't said anything about calls, so I dismissed that. A lady came out and introduced herself as Cory and I stood up and shook her hand and introduced myself as well. I forgot to write this earlier, but I was looking pretty snazzy wearing my beige high collared sweater (not quite a turtleneck but similar) and the black suit that I had bought last year. I had black boots and my black purse and all in all looked pretty friggin co-ordinated! :) She lead me through the doors and into the conference room where she introduced me to another woman named vicky. She told me all about the job before the interview even started. Recently the starting wage had increased from 16$ to 17$. Employees get full benefits and a pension program from day one of their employment. She told me that the entire interview consisted of 5 questions. She asked me if I was currently employed and I told her that I was a customer care representative at Accenture business services and had been since September, I offered pulled out my new resume and references from my purse. She laughed and said that that would take care of the first two questions (also noting that I had rolled it and put an elastic around it instead of folding it). I never thought I would say this, but I am SO happy that I stuck it out at Connect North America (it had a reputation as being a difficult place to work being an outbound call centre). The questions that Vicky asked me were really easy, tell me about a time you've dealt with a difficult customer? and tell me about a time where you had to deal with someone who wasn't listening to what you were saying? I answered those without even having to think about it. That happened all the time at Connect, no one wanted to listen to me, I was interrupting their dinner or something. Cory asked me about a situation that I've been in where it was very important to listen to details. I told her about working in the billing department and every call is different and the details are very important to finding a quick resolution to the problem. I told them that I provided service to BC and alot of the customers did not speak English and trying to figure out what they needed was challenging. The next question was something about trying to deal with people who speak another language, and I had already answered it! The interview went well and they told me the interviews would finish up sometime in February and I would be getting a letter in March telling me if I had been selected for the inventory (for jobs in the next 2 years). I think I scored some brownie points by saying that I would need to be able to give two weeks notice at my current job before starting a job there. Cory said that they always give their employees lots of notice before the job will start because they don't want to get a reputation as a place that won't allow employees to give good notice. I'm glad that I did well and it was a good day, but it's to bad that I won't know for another couple of months if I'm even in the running for jobs. I said that I would be interested in permanent full time, and maybe in term jobs (because I asked and they said they try to keep trained people, before hiring outside). I was going to say part time as well, but the part time is only guaranteed 12.5 hours a week and that's crazy. The hours rock though. 8am-5pm Monday to Friday and 12pm-5pm on Saturdays, but you really only work one Saturday a month! The training is for 2 weeks in the class, 1 week you observe while the trainer takes calls and the 4th week you take calls while the trainer is observing you and can help whenever you need it. The busy season is March to September I think she said. Property tax season and something else. Hopefully something will be available for me in March, a week or less after I get my letter telling me I'm in the inventory. They said that the training is only offered at one site at a time, so if I need to travel to Saint John, Moncton or Mirimichi they would pay for my travel, accomodations and meal expenses. Woohoo! That would be a whole month away from home, but I'd do it for a wicked job like that! They said that 700 people applied, about 150 were dropped because they didn't pass the test and another 100 had not been interested in an interview. So, that leaves about 450 people that I'm up against, but really I live right in Fredericton, alot of those people probably don't live as close, maybe that will give me an advantage? I'm hoping it does! I only have to work tomorrow and Friday before the glorious weekend and my two whole days off. I'm really hoping I get weekends off next shift bid, I really like it. I lost all my attendence point because I had to miss those extra days for grampy's funeral. For some reason they didn't score any of my calls, so I didn't get any quality points either...hmm....last shift bid I had an extra 28 quality points which was very helpful. Anyway I'm going to go get a drink....woohoo for me! hehe...

I had a really good week last week. I had Monday off, used my banked time- Jan1/08 work was closed and we got paid, I worked Wednesday and had Thursday off. I went in and worked yesterday and I got the weekend off as well (I got weekends off this shift bid). Next week I work Monday and Tuesday. Then on Wednesday I have a vacation day to go to my interview with Service New Brunswick! (wish me luck). I am really looking forward to it. I'm trying to think of what I should wear...hmm.....I think I'll wear my glasses (just in case my eye is little droopy) and a high collared shirt to cover my scar. I don't need them making any assumptions. I know it is for jobs within the next two years, but I sure am hoping something is available soon. I want out of the call centre world. I forgot to write in my last post that I got together with my friend Anne Dance on New Years day. She was visiting from B.C. She surprised me and gave me a nice vase that she bought while in Morocco this summer past and a Chocolate that is popular in B.C (thanks). Its been nice to sit around doing nothing today. Sam and I watched the movie "Once" the other night. It was a nice movie and it was nice to spend the evening with Sam. We hadn't done a movie or date night in awhile with both of us working so much. Anyway I am starving, gotta go fix something for supper.... :)