I am Such A Slacker!! The first three weeks of this month were only 4 day weeks for me (thankfully). Last week I had Monday off and went home early (they send an email around asking people if they would like to go home early and you can reply to it) on Thursday (using 4 hours of vacation time to cover my absence) and again on Friday (leaving at 10pm and using 2hours of floater time to cover my absence). This is my last (and only) full week of this crummy shift and I get to work thinking " I want to go home". I worked from 3pm-6:45pm today ( I was on my lunch when I got the email stating my approval to leave early, but didn't get back to my desk until 7:05pm (my lunch ends at 7:30pm). I suppose I'll have to stay tomorrow and Friday to make some money, but I figured it was a three pay month and I got my tax return so I can afford to leave unpaid without to much damage. Next week I start my new shift (that my Team manager adjusted so I can take the bus both ways) and don't think I'll be tempted to reply to those emails as much.
So I logged out of everything and called myself a cab. I got home expecting to surprise Sam, but he wasn't home when I arrived. I called him and discovered he was over on the Northside having some beer with a guy from school. I was disappointed, but it's been kinda nice to have some time to myself. Last Saturday Sam and I were out and I bought the game Shrek 2 for the PS2. It's a pretty good game, I can switch between Shrek, Fiona, Gingerbread man and Donkey all the time, using different ones for different things.
I was able to book October 21/08 off for the Madonna trip, which will be nice. BTW Gzmo does not have another Kidney Stone, woohoo!! She's just a wimp and is sensitive around her stomach since she had one, the vet said it's just psychological, there's nothing wrong.

This weekend was really nice. Friday night we went to Snooty Fox, Alicia and John showd up, but (I found out this morning) Joanne and eric ended up at Nickyzees. It was nice to get out on a Friday night, I spent way to much on Fancy named drinks. We got Nacho's and by the end of it the total came to $65. Saturday Jackie and her parents came to Freddy for her grad. We all ended up going to Mcginnis landing. We just had lunch stuff so it wasn't to much. I went to Jackie's graduation ceremony, but I left after she walked the stage (It was an hour and a half in and my chest was/is super burned). I didn't care about any of the other graduates anyway. ;) Sunday we didn't do to much. Monday on the otherhand was great!! I have already beaten Super Mario world with Princess Peach, but on Sunday I not only beat it with Mario, but again with Toadstool! I felt very accomplished all day!! Today is going by fairly quickly. I booked from 3-5pm off on Friday, so I can take Gizmo to the vets without worrying about being late. (and it's a Friday so the less work the better!). (this was written yesterday)
Today I found out that I did o.k on the shift bid and I work 2-10:30pm. I can take the bus to work and find another way home, but I might also talk to my TM about starting 15mins early and leaving 15mins early so that I can catch the bus home as well. It would be cutting it close (its supposed to get to the bus stop at 10:20pm, but it's always alittle late). Woohoo for not having the crappiest shift for the summer!! At least for June anyway, gotta log into all the crap for work, write later!! :)

So I got my position in the shift bid. I am 10 out of 15. It's an o.k spot in most circumstances, but in this case not so great. The first 9 shifts end before midnight and I would gladly take any one of those, but in less someone chooses a midnight shift. I as the lowly number 10, will be stuck with a crummy shift. BOO to that. However I am aware of one individual, Victoria that doesn't mind the later shift, so if she chooses that I will be o.k. (otherwise I'm screwed!). If I do get a crummy shift I think I will go to the human resource manager and tell her that this is the reason I didn't want to be collections trained. I have been here 8 months and there are new billing people that have better shifts than me. I'll just complain to my team manager and her and I'm pretty sure I can work it so I could get a better shift. I'm cute and I can use it to my advantage! (hahaha) Yesterday I went into my schedule planner and cancelled some days off in August that I had booked off randomly and went into the planner and requested to have Oct 22,23, and 24 off (so I can go to Montreal and attend a Madonna concert) and I was APPROVED!! Later when some more of my banked time actually gets added to the planner-it takes forever- I will request to have Oct 21 off as well. I'm excited, I've never been on a plane before and I've never seen Madonna (and likely never will again-although, maybe... this is like her 160 farewell tour isn't it?) :) Yesterday I did some off phone work!! I didn't even start until 3pm and I was off the phones until 6pm, then I only had to log on for 1/2 an hour because my lunch was at 6:30pm!! Woohoo!! I hate the phones..... and people.....people for the most part suck!! Today Sam and are meeting Alica & John, and Joanne and Eric at the Snooty fox for beer and nacho's, it should be a nice evening. Which reminds me I have to call and make some reservations. Saturday Jackie will be arriving, I am excited to see her (and meet Steve). Mom said she was thinking of coming to Fredericton, I'm not to sure how far that thought got, but it would be nice to see her if she can make it. I was at work the other day and Joanne (who also worked at Connect) came over and told me that we have to go to court some time in June, she showd me my name on the great big sheet of paper she had and it said that I was entitled to alittle over $500. That will come in handy. I have to get Gizmo some more needles next week and another ultrasound, I think she has another Kidney or bladder stone, hopefully this time we can catch it early enough to avoid another surgery. It's only benn 6mths since her last one and I feed her this expensive preventative food, what's up with that?! She should not have gotten another one this early! I should go straighten up the apartment and get showered and dressed....Oh and "note to self-buy an antivirus for the computer"....:)

I just had an introduction meeting with my team manager, everyone is scheduled for one, and I found out that I am #3 on our "team", which is mostly billing CSR's. I won't know where I'm at in the actual collections shift bid until mid May. She did say that I had a good score though (99). I'm still fairly confident that I will get a decent position in the shift bid. My friend Alicia is on the same team as me and is in the collections bid and I know I did better than her. The whole points thing is very misleading!! It doesn't really matter where I rank in the team, if we aren't in the same shift bid! Ridiculous! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

I was pleasantly surprised last night when I received an email from my Team manager with the shift bid points. Last month our position was randomly drawn because we were the new class. This month however it is based on our performance. I am number 3 out of 18 on the shift bid!! I have never been that high before! Woohoo!! This means I will probably get my first or second choice in shifts and I won't be working until midnight (which really sucks). I couldn't beleive it when I looked at my position based on my score. I checked my ID # about twenty times to make sure I was looking at the right ID. I think I will purchase myself a new bike (with an awesome lock to prevent this one from being stolen). I will be able to bike to and from work all month, it will be really nice. I am very happy about having tomorrow off and going to Saint John for Lisa's going away party. Then next weekend, Jill from work invited a bunch of co-workers out to Jungle Jims to hang out. So far there are 10 or more people going, it should be nice. I have that day off as well. Jackie is coming to Freddy on Saturday for her graduation and to see me (obviously). I'm really excited about that, I've missed her alot. It will also be an opportunity to meet her new boyfriend Steve (a military firefighter) who has invited her to move to Alberta with him soon. Whoa!! I'm happy for her though, it's adventurous. Woohoo number 3!!......oops....sorry for getting alittle off topic there, but I'm excited about my kick ass position! :) The best thing about today, is that after today, I don't have to come to work tomorrow!! Gizmo has an appointment at the vets at 1pm and it's supposed to be nice, so I think we will walk down. After that we may cab home b/c I have to buy some more dog food (and it would be awkward to carry up the hilll). Upon arrival at the apartment we may hang out in the back yard for a bit (gizmo loves having a back yard!). Then I will pack my things for the weekend and await mom and richards arrival, mom said about 3pm (so they probably will arrive around 4pm) :) This will be a nice weekend, as well as next weekend. I should probably log into all the stuff I need to start work shortly....Happy Thursday!!

I was done the offline work in about 20mins, but since I was booked off from 8-9pm I just kept it open and went back and forth "reviewing" the slides. It was a nice day having the breaks. On my break I was sitting around with some friends and we started mentioning our shifts for next month. I told everyone that I had the 3-12am but I had a stupid hour lunch, Bill said that he would prefer that shift over his 3:30pm-12am with 1/2 hr lunch. So we tried to switch our shifts. We both sent an email to staffing and I wrote to my Team manager. My TM said that it was fine but we would have to make sure it gets done, the new schedule starts Saturday, so I ran over to ask Bill if he worked Saturday, and then I said "oh well, we're both collections so we won't work Saturday anyway" and he told me that he didn't work Saturday, but he is only billing. So that probably won't happen, we're in completely different shift bids. I was so hopeful and upbeat* and then it didn't work out, at least my hopeful mood was only about 10mins, otherwise I would've been more disappointed. Oh well