So I was alittle confused as to why I was on a waiting list when there were 17 hours available for july 8 and 10 so I asked a team manager (not mine, cause she's never around) what was going on. She told me how to refresh the hours to show how many were actually available. Turns out both days had -1 hrs available, so I probably wouldn't have gotten approved. So I cancelled all of my july requests and went into August. There were alot of hours available (even after I refreshed) for August 11-15, so I put a request in to have that week off and got approved for all 5 days right away!!Woohoo! Finally I'll be able to make some plans. I'm doing well on mario 2. Sam showed me how to warp on a couple of levels and now I can make it as high as world 6-the desert world-which I'm not liking very much (probably cause I can't beat it yet). Mom called me and asked me to book Friday May 9th off so that I could come to Saint John and help her clean, not my favorite thing to do, but it's mom, so I'll do it. I have Friday May 9, Friday May 16 and Monday May 19 off, even though I have a crummy shift this month (3-12am) I'm only working 4 day weeks for the first 3 anyway. It worked out quite nicely. Sam is doing well at school, I think he's enjoying it. This week is dragging...it's only Wednesday! Two more days to go! Boo!! I did get an email saying that I can go offline from 8pm-9pm to do some HR policy stuff (that I'm pretty sure I've already done, but will do it again to get off the phones for an hour). Also Paulette just came over and told me that I would be asked to logg off in alittle while to go to some sort of huddle, everyone in my area is going a couple people at a time, so more time off. Woohoo!

I arrived at work this morning and thought to myself, it's a beautiful day out I don't want to be here, so I signed the home early book (figuring I wouldn't get sent home at all and if they asked me to late I would have just said no). They usually email people asking if they want to go home and to reply what time they would like to leave and how they would cover it. The day was going alright and by 5pm I went on my lunch.When I returned to my desk to log back in, they had sent me an email telling me to log out at 5:30pm and go home, just send an exception to staffing adv of it. They just told me to leave, so I left!! By the time I got myself all logged out of everything and ready to go it was 5:37pm. The bus was leaving at 5:50pm homeward bound, so I just caught the bus. When I got home I figured I would surprise Sam and we could go do something. I got home and he was in bed taking a nap!! He got up to greet me and then returned to bed! He's tired getting back into the swing of school and homework. He has alot of work to do tonight, I'll let him rest then. He received another cheque in the mail today, so he's got more money for me!Woohoo money$$ We've decided to go to brunch at the pub on york and then to the market. Hopefully I'll be able to find some more Nintendo games. I've got my heart set on Mario Bros 3. Maybe I can pick up one of the guns because the other game Sam bought me has the oldest mario and duck hunt on it.I love my Nintendo! It glitches out while I'm playing it sometimes though. I'm going to see about having it cleaned. Off to play my nintendo again....chow!!

I was cleaning up the computer room this afternoon, I wasn't impressed at having to clean it because I has asked Sam earlier in the week a couple of times to clean it. I discovered a mug with about 10-15 cigarette butts in it and soot all in and around my desk. I was not impressed and called Sam to bitch at him for smoking in the apartment. We agreed 5 years ago that he wasn't going to smoke in the apartment! So I called him up and told him he would never guess what I had discovered while cleaning, he asked what and I told him about the mug. He apologized and told me that he had a gift for me, something I have been wanting for a long time. I had no clue what he was talking about, I don't want much and if I do I go buy it. He found me an original Nintendo!! I am so friggin happy!! He said that he also bought me 2 games to go with it! I have been wanting one for at least 2 years, but since they don't make them anymore they are really hard to find, so I had given up. I'm going to have to book a day off next week so I can devote it to playing Nintendo!! Hehe....aww.....Nintendo! Woohoo!! It is so nice in Fredericton all this week, today Gizmo and I walked to Tims and Zellers and I just wore a sweater.

I did get the 3-12am shift with an hour lunch, oh well it's only for one month. I've decided to take a week off july 7-11 and I have weekends off so it will actually be a 9 day vacation. I was able to use the banked time that I've been saving and had some vacation and floater time to cover 2days. I've been approved for the 7, 9, and 11 and I am #1 on the wait list for the 8 and 10. I'm pretty sure that I'll be approved, there's lots of time available, so there is no reason for them not to approve it. I'm taking a 4 day weekend in May for the victoria day weekend. Jackie is coming to Fredericton for her graduation, so it was a good weekend to book time off. I'm going to do taxes this weekend, I know...I should've had them done by now, but I had to call and get my T4 for Connect North America and I just got it (2 wks ago)....which I suppose is no excuse, but after working all week the last thing that I feel like doing on the weekends is my taxes. I wonder if that place "help for taxes" charges anything to get them to help out, probably. I should have a pretty decent return, if I get it before July, maybe I'll use it to treat Sam and I to a real vacation somewhere. Do I need a passport to fly within Canada? That would take some time, I'm sure we could work something out with the travel agency we book with. I was thinking maybe going to Toronto, I've never been to Ontario at all, maybe it would be a good choice. Any suggestions?
The lady from family services contacted Sam the other day and said that she is going to try and get him some extra money for transportation and living expenses! She be at school to meet him on Tuesday to get his signature for some things. So the government is paying for his $1800 program and giving him extra money!! He got his first EI cheque in the mail today, so I got some money he owed me and he paid his mom some money for his cell bill (that he doesn't need, but wants for whatever reason, silly man). I got home and he told me that he was going to go downtown to his buddy Charles' house to hang out for awhile. He also asked me if it was o.k if he went to Saint John this weekend. I told him it doesn't matter to me, but he has to make damn sure he's home Sunday, since he has class Monday morning. I'm so happy for him. He's been pretty happy the last week, everything's been working in his favor. I emailed Compu College about their pharmacy technician course and a woman called me about it and wanted to set up a meeting, but I told her I work full time and I wasn't available. She said she would email the info to me, but still hasn't. I hope she doesn't forget. If I were to take that course I would know absoluely what kind of job I'm qualified to do and have the training for something more specific. Stupid BA....learn to think for yourself.....gain a bunch of knowledge but have no where to apply it......challenge ideas....

I loved having a four day week last week, it was wonderful and just flew by! I also have a four day week this week, having booked today off awhile ago. Alicia from work also has today off to attend a dentist appointment, so we decided to drink and watch cartoons last night. Now I haven't watched any cartoons in years and was shocked to discover how inappropriate and sexually oriented they have become! We watched channel 17 and it was the Simpsons, 2 episodes of family guy and then we just watched TLC. Where are the cartoond for kids? Are they all japanimation now? Who knows!
So, on to my low position in the shift bid, thankfully Alicia is low in the shift bid 12/15 and offered to give me a ride home if we're both off at 12am, which we probably will be. Most early shifts only have one opening, the shifts that end at midnight have 5 openings! Which will mean that the people 10-15 will be working until midnight I would think. At least it's just for one month though, cause my collections calls kick butt(toot-toot), so next month I would think I would be higher on the shift bid. My team lead gave me alittle project to do while the calls were slow on Friday. She asked me to make up a survey to get to know the team better(favorite colors, foods, etc), so that was nice to be asked out of the rest of the team. She also called me on Saturday to see if I wanted to come in and make some extra money. I politely declined the offer, I'm there enough already.
Sam and I have decided that I should book a week off the second week of July. July shifts are only 7hrs on the calendar right now, so if I book now I'll only need 35hrs. I've already got 24 in my banked and I'm pretty sure I still have 13hrs vacation left. Sam went and did his testing for the program that starts next week today. I'm pretty sure this means that he got referred....he said that the woman at family counselling services (the one he needs for the referral) also said that she would help him get his EI, so he would have it the entire program period. If he can take another culinary arts program while he's got this lady's help I told him to go for it. This way when he goes back to work (working under an actual chef) he can clock his hours and take his test for his block two.
My ring that mom bought me when I was eight broke. I am really rough on rings. I've got to get the one Sam bought me reset, the stone in the ring mom got me put back in and to extend the gold band across the ring, AND the little diamond (that I already replaced once) replaced again on my ring like moms. Good thing I've still got some Regent mall gift cards. I'm just not getting any of the work done at the same place that replaced the little diamond and it fell out again, what shotty work!

I just didn't feel like coming to work yesterday. I rolled over before my alarm went off after a very nice sleep and though to myself "I don't want to go to work today", when my alarm went off I thought it again, and after hitting the snooze button to lay there and ponder my choices I decided to call in sick!~ I arrived at work this morning to discover that I still get paid for 60% of the day. On a bad note I discovered something that put a damper in the morning....I was completely wrong in my wonderfully ignorant assumption that by using my banked or floater time to cover when I leave early, that I would still be able to bank it as double overtime. NOPE!! Not the case apparently. I just noticed this on my online schedule. So I get paid for it, but only at 100%, instead of the 200% if I were to work it. BOO to them expecting that!! I was so proud of myself for outsmarting "the man". So, now I'll have to actually work the extra time to bank it. Today was really nice, I was taken off the phones from 1:25pm-2:15pm by a supervisor to listen to some of my calls, I didn't do well in any of the calls that they had chosen to record. I forgot to say the two tag lines that we are required to say (have I resolved the reason for your call? and thank you for calling terasen gas) and lost a wack of points for that. I was feeling alittle down on myself (they all were billing calls), but mark said that I was being to hard on myself and was very encouraging. Later on at around 6:30pm paulette sat with me and marked some of my collections calls. She said that I would have gotten a 100% on the first call that she listened to and that I did very well on the other calls as well. That had the rest of my day going nicer and I was cheerful all day long! My very last call of the night was a woman who had been disconnected for not paying her bill(now I know that I can't reconnect her without confirmation of her paying the overdue balance) but for some crazy reason I set up a payment arrangement and sent someone out there to reconnect her for 95$. That was a BIG mistake! I knew that I couldn't reconnect her when I first seen the acct, but as we got talking I got into a payment arrangement kinda mode and totally forgot what I was doing! I will be scored down for that! Oh well it's done now. I was having a really good evening, and I screwed it all up on the last call! Anyway gotta go watch some "Girlicious".

Now that I'm in collections I really like it. Probably more than I like being in billing. People who are calling the collections department are just setting up payment arrangements so that they don't get disconnected. They are pretty friendly to me (considering I'm their last contact before getting disconnected in most cases). I still get the sob stories about how they can't pay their bill and it's not their fault and they have 3 kids and.....I try to help them as much as I can, but when it comes right down to it...you have to pay your bills (period). People expect their phone or cable to be disconnected if they don't pay their bills (after repeated warnings and overdue statements-even phone calls reminding them), but for some reason think that we are being unreasonable to disconnect their gas service. Whatever. Now I don't have to deal with people calling because they think their bill is to high (because they don't think they used that much gas- I don't know what their basing this assumption on, but they believe they didn't use it). I never called NB power and disputed using more or less electricity than they billed me for!! I really don't understand what these people are hoping to accomplish by making these ridiculous claims!! I had a nice week at work. I signed the home early book on Wednesday and Friday and was fortunate enough to get an email telling me I could go. Wednesday I left at 9pm (only 45mins early), so I used 45mins of floater time to cover and banked that 45mins at double overtime for 11/2 hrs. Yesterday I got to leave at 7pm!! I did the same thing, used banked overtime to cover leaving 2:45 early and still was able to bank 11/2 again. I got home shortly after 7pm and Sam and I went out to a late dinner at the Hilltop. We had gone there last weekend for breakfast and I was surprised at how good their prices were, so we went there for dinner Friday. They have sweet potato fries which are really nice. This morning/afternoon Sam made us some omelettes. I've been banking all of my double overtime for awhile and in another week I think I might have enough time to book a 5days off paid. (+ I usually have weekends off). I suppose there are worse jobs out there. Anywhoo I think I'll go online and play a game or something since I have the computer for a couple hours.