Mostly good. in 2014

If I had to come up with a description of my life right now, that's what it would be. Really, it is. Work is great for both of us, we are great, Robbie is great. There will be a curve ball every now and then, but unlike last year, now we have the means to get past it with only minor bumps and bruises.

Take the whole impounded car business, for example. Last year, there would have been no way we could have done it without some help, most likely from my parents. Which would have stressed me out considerably with how much they helped us during the year or so Ben wasn't working once the painting commissions stopped coming in. But with how it was all timed, we were able to pay for it all ourselves and still have money to get us until Friday. I stressed the night before, don't get me wrong. I worked myself into believing ever worse case scenario that could possibly happen, including, but not limited to, a meteor hitting the impound lot and destroying the car while it was there. That may be a slight exaguration, but I was worried about the car. I also worried over how much everything would cost. When you are expecting a total closer to the four digit mark, finding out it will be on the lower end of three digits is a huge relief.

The only minor setback is rent will be three days late until we get paid, but fortunately management is understanding of it as long as it's not a habit. This is only the second time we've been late with rent, the first time was only two or three days that time as well.

In my last entry in describing the driving back and forth to get the car, I don't think I captured exactly how amusing it was. All the places we had to go were within 5 miles of our apartment, one way or the other. One coworker said she could hear the Benny Hill theme playing in her head when I told her the story. And, really, apart from feeling foolish over the whole situation, it was a rather enjoyable morning. I got to spend the morning with my fiancee and my best friend. And it was fun.

After we had the car, Ben went home and Tammera and I hung out at her house watching Lost Girl on Netflix until it was time to go to work. The OM's let me use PTO to leave at 6 instead of 10 after hearing the story of my day. And, even though I dropped the ball when it came to the order processing class scheduling, they were still sympathetic, got me out the door and covered for me. I've been highly apologetic about it since I feel like an idiot for that, but they are still being wonderfully understanding.

I started the solo class today and it's going well. There was a bit of chaos at first, due to no fault of anyone. I had a plan laid out, but as soon as I got to work, found out a second AM training class started that day. There went my plan, flying around the room like a wild balloon and soaring out the window. There are only two training rooms, and we need a training room as it is a very hands on process. Our only contengency place was try to get the projector working and walk everyone through some how-to-guide's. This was attempted, but the projector and our computer system doesn't mix. You could barely read it no matter where you sat in the room. And there went the contingency plan, falling through a trapdoor into a tank of crocodiles.

By the time anyone thought of sitting the class with those already in OP and y-jacking with them, it was close to 3:30 and we had the training room then. But! We are go to do that tomorrow and I can do it with by Thursday/Friday class as well. Third plan's a charm.

Once we got on track, everything went smoothly. Though, I must be considerably less chatty about non OP stuff. I realised at 9:00 during a live demonstration that I was almost done with only one more guide to look at, and it was a short one. Rather than have everyone sit around for 40 twiddling their thumbs, I gave them an extra break, which made them happy.

We also got some very good news at work today. Effective 8/30, we're all getting raises. Corporate finally listened to everyone saying it is the lack of competitive pay is what is causing the turn over to be atrocious. It stands to reason, why work somewhere for $10 an hour when you can make at least $14 somewhere else doing the same thing.

If I get to keep the extra 50 cents for tech support, I'll be making $11.50 an hour on 8/30. On my anniversary date next month, I'll go up to $12.50. I don't know if I will keep the .50 since I'm not technically in tech anymore, but we'll see.

They will have to give the supervisors raises, too, since those of us making $12 an hour will be just a little below, if not right at, the salary of a sup. If they do a $2-$3 differential like how it is now, I could very well be making $14-$15 an hour once I'm on salary.

I'll be making more than Ben again! Ha! If you don't count the overtime he gets. And I can only gloat until he gets a raise.