Summer work begins

I have just finished my third full day of work at Ferdinand's. I'm not sure this summer's work stories will be as quirky as those from last summer, but there is the occasional incident worth sharing.

Training Day
- I get to experiment making all the different drinks and ice cream dishes. When it comes time to practice banana splits, my supervisor told me banana, one scoop of ice cream, one topping, whipped cream, nuts and a cherry. I get to pick the flavors. I put raspberries on peppermint because then the topping and ice cream matched. It was gross. It sat in the break room all day and no one would eat it.

Days 1-3
- I put my apron on backward.
- I made an old man very sad when I told him I can only use shake base, not ice cream in his milkshake.
- I watched a child lick the glass front of the cheese cabinet. I had to clean the slobber off later.
- I couldn't watch as an old lady walked up to the doors after we had closed. Ferdinand's has a very strict closed at 4:30 rule. I imagine it looked very sad.
- An grumpy looking woman came in and ordered a banana split. She had a dark cloud overhead but I figured the split would cheer her up. I was wrong. Split in hand she was still grumpy. I wondered what kind of grumpy person wants a banana split. She came in the next day, but I hid in the back and let someone else serve her.

Day 4 begins tomorrow.

I leave work each day smelling of a strange mixture of Windex and ice cream. I do not have internet (or T.V.) in my summer apartment so blog posting will be occurring on days I stop by the newsroom.

October Tragedy

My original intention for posting was to write about the very strange dreams I have been having of late. However, just before I posted, I went through my daily ritual of checking the state's top newspaper headlines and discovered some shocking news.

In October, a woman died at the plywood plant where I worked over the summer. I learned this now because the plant was fined $3,850 by the Department of Labor and Industries. When I saw the headline, I wondered if it was the same plant, but didn't think it could be. I'm not familiar with the area where the accident happened, but I know where I worked in the plant, safety was always stressed as the highest priority, often annoyingly so. Accidents like this just go to show you why.

My condolences are a bit late now, but I wish her family and co-workers the best as they struggle to overcome this tragedy.

A summer and day of things learned

I arrived in Pullman yesterday, but my newspaper training has kept me exceedingly busy, and as much as I would have liked to, I can't blog and drive at the same time. I'm about to be late for the ice cream social (fun stuff, I know, but the ice cream is from Ferdinand's), but I shall still attempt to give a quick update.

Things I gained from making plywood all summer:

1) Some money in savings to pay for anything my scholarship doesn't cover.
2) I was able to purchase several new skirts and a few pairs of shoes to add to my closet.
3) A gigantic callous on my right thumb. (I like showing it off to people.)
4) More tolerance for long boring stretches of time. The drive over didn't seem as bad as I remember being in the past. (Although the first half of the drive is a story all in itself which should come at a later date.)
5) The knowledge that money won't be enough to make up for doing a job you hate. I can't imagine working at the plant for more than a few months at a time.

Things I learned in my first day on campus as a sophomore:

1) Single rooms are much better than double rooms.
2) Trying to put your bed on bed-risers all by yourself, is a bad idea.
3) It's not any easier leaving home for your second year, but the first couple days back at school are a lot easier.
4) Pullman/Eastern Washington is hot! (And not in the ridiculous Paris Hilton sense.)
5) In a newsroom, when one says "that line seems too bold," it is important to ask if they are talking about font.

Truck Day

Fridays are truck days at Big 5. This means that a truck full of new merchandise comes to the store and a group of employees has to be there at 4 in the morning to unload it. Amazingly, I hadn't had to unload the truck ever...that is...until today.

The actual work day was fine. I didn't mind wearing my street clothes, I didn't mind being there at 4 and I didn't mind taking my lunch at 10. It would have been nicer if I would have slept some last night instead of looking at my clock every 15 minutes to make sure I didn't miss my alarm. I didn't really start to feel the fatigue until after I got off work and finally got to sit down (this was at 1 o'clock). I was actually bummed that my shift was over because I was getting into a groove with moving out new merchandise, but I had to leave. Conveniently, I was driving when the exhaustion hit me. Now, I'm trying to hold on for a few more minutes while I write another post or two.

Two weeks and counting

Last week I acquired two new injuries at work. I got a scratch across the bridge of my nose when I leaned too close to a piece of veneer traveling down to the grader and a rather painful scratch/bruise combination when I walked into a cart. The bruise has turned green now. It hurt a lot.

In other news, I have only two weeks left until I head back to Pullman. This sudden realization has left me trying to fit as much as I possibly can into these last two weeks. Think Calvin in August. As a result, I have been very busy. And now, I am very tired.

Also, Ariel is in Kalaloch this week and I am lonely. It never fails to be when she is unavailable when I have the most desperate need to talk to her.

Special Effects of Plywood

So there I was, plugging at my plugger and daydreaming as usual. and then, a sudden, loud boom/bang jolted me out of my thoughts. It sounded like a large stack of wood had been dropped from a high distance. I looked up and sure enough, in the distance one could see a large dust cloud had been forced into the air. All the other pluggers heard and saw it too. I saw the foreman running towards the cloud and then all the pluggers jumped down and ran to the site also. Except for me. I work right in front of the grader and he didn't move so I figured I had better stay put also. A few minutes later, everyone came straggling back.

There is a little trough which runs along all the pluggers where the scraps of wood fall. At the bottom of the trough there is a belt which runs all the scraps into a grinder. It turns out that the motor for this grinder blew up. It is completely destroyed. No one was hurt. Some of the pieces which were blown off were so hot that even the heavy duty gloves melted if you touched them.

We kept plugging after the event but we gathered all the scraps of wood into cardboard boxes and then carried the boxes to a dumping site. I've never realized how many scraps I make each day. I hope they turn the scraps into something because if not, there are an awful lot of trees that are being wasted.

Continuing my observations ...

As I've said before, all I really do at work is think about things and/or make observations. Some of today's observations:

I work with a Rick, Roy, Richard, Ray, and Ryan. That's a lot of R-names working together in a small vicinity.

I like wearing nail polish to work because it's about the only dressing up I can do. I fell in love with a color Ariel has and bought a bottle of my own. I ate grapes today with my lunch. The nail polish was exactly the same color as the red grapes. I thought it was weird.

I've seen a lot of 3s this summer: Spider-man 3, Pirates 3, Shrek the Third, Ocean's 13, and though technically it was a 5th and not a 3rd, Harry Potter. What's with the 3s?

Today I also reinforced in my mind that I am a nerd. I replay bad/embarrassing/regretful memories a lot more often in my mind than I replay happy/fond ones. I realized this in the middle of a bad memory. I became determined to think about some happy ones instead. What came immediately to my mind, but of course, different moments from debate tournaments. Can't get much happier than debate.

No Smiles Here

We had a code of conduct meeting yesterday morning at work. (It had to occur in the morning, instead of giving us an excuse to avoid the 109 degrees it was in the plant by afternoon.) The meeting was primarily about harassment and mostly sexual harassment. I came away thinking that if anyone ever had any thoughts about asking me out, they surely won't now. I learned at this meeting that it is dangerous for men to speak to, look at, let alone touch a female co-worker. Same goes for women to men but at a lesser degree.

I think it is sad that we have to have meetings where supervisors warn, "even complimentary comments, like telling a woman she looks nice today, can be viewed as harassment." I understand why it has happened. I understand how important it is to discuss what sexual harassment is and to make it known that it is unacceptable. I understand that this meeting, as silly as I sometimes believed it to be (No kissing allowed between anyone on plant property even if married or family members. A brief arm around another's shoulders as a way of parting is, however, tolerated), was necessary. I understand, but I think it's sad.

O Hemlock tree

Since I have been working at the plant, the only kind of wood I have plugged is Douglas Fir. There were some good loads and some bad loads, but overall the Fir and I got along. Today, I had to plug Hemlock which is an evil, evil tree. The sheets were covered in knots, the wood was rough, and the ends were split. Hemlock did not make a good first impression at all.

Should find yourself at the mercy of a forest some day, remember this lesson: Hemlock is evil.

Tail Between My Legs

I learned a big lesson yesterday at Big 5 (I expect the next four to follow soon). I learned you should never talk about a customer on the sales floor...ever.

This lady had come in to the store with her 5ish kids and was yelling at them so I decided not to ask her if she needed help, because I could see that she was a little busy. She flagged me down though and told me to help her with the skim boards. She yelled at her kids some more then told me that she wanted two of the ones that were on sales but she wanted them to be different colors. She was upset because we didn't have two different colors and that's what she wanted. I apologized and told her that sale items usually sell quickly. I also told her that we had gotten a truck in that morning but all of our new skim boards had been put out on the floor already. She was upset at the news and started complaining about how she had driven all the way from Shelton and they had just left McDonald's and that was a nightmare (well duh) and that driving all the way from Shelton was a big deal for them and she couldn't believe we didn't have the product she wanted. The reality of it was that we, in fact, did have the product she wanted, but she needed two different colors. I apologized and told her that we could either do a rain check or call the Lacey store. She decided to do a rain check. Then barked at her kids to go sit in the car. I told her to have a nice day and walked off to help some more customers.

A few minutes later I walked up to my manager and another sales associate who were in the middle of talking about an irritating customer. I asked them who they were talking about and they described the same lady I had been talking to earlier. I told them that she had been ornery to me too. I told them how she was complaining about driving all the way from Shelton and that I drive from McCleary every day and it's the same distance, but I don't' take it out on other people. The three of us "discussed" it a bit then the other sales guy proceeded to mock her, when suddenly she stepped out from behind him and said "I've decided to call the Lacey store."

My stomach felt like it was going to explode, my heart stopped beating for 2 whole seconds, my jaw dropped to the floor and I stood there frozen like a deer in headlights. My manager said she would call the Lacey store and started leading her back to the front of the store. As the lady passed me she said "same distance as McCleary, whatever" or something to that extent because apparent my brain was in shut down mode too and decided to turn off my ears.

After she left my lungs started working again and I ran to the back room with my co-worker. My manager came to the back after a few minutes and told me that the lady was pissed and acting dramatic (I think, my ears were still shut off). I told her I was going to stay in the back until she left and my manager gave me permission. Then a different sales guy came to the back and told me that Jordan, who was the one complaining with us on the floor, had done it again! He was telling the cashier the story and the lady was right behind him!

Unlike my co-worker I have learned my lesson. I was right though. McCleary and Shelton are the same distance from Olympia.

The mind is a strange place.

I think about many things during my time on the plugger. My mind travels all over the place. Here are some of the places it visited today.

I think it's funny when a man who makes plywood struggles opening a yogurt cup.

"Necklace" and "Neck less" sound exactly the same. I found this odd since someone who is neck less would be unable to wear a necklace.

Something I like about working in a loud environment is that I can pop and snap my bubble gum as loud as I want to and no one notices. How come no one else chews bubble gum at the plywood plant?

One of the graders always throws me a piece of candy when I work across from him. I wonder if he gives candy to the boys too.

Some of my thoughts from past days I'm sure have been more interesting, but those days are gone and I can't remember what the thoughts were so I shared these instead.

Fire and Spines

Today a jitney a.k.a. fork lift caught on fire. No one was hurt. There was more smoke than flame and a fire extinguisher was deployed almost immediately.

I came home from that excitement to find that our dogs had gotten into a fight with a porcupine. My father is pulling spines out of their snouts as I write this. I was kicked out of the room because I kept flinching. It looks quite painful and I am very sorry for them.

Anyone up for flashlight tag?

The power went out at the plywood plant today. About 25 minutes before it was time to go home, just 5 before it was time to start cleaning up, I heard a grinding sound. Then silence and everything went dark. A few emergency lights flickered on, which succeeded in simply creating more shadows.

I patiently stood on the little platform by my plugger listening to the supervisors yell out orders and watching dark figures scurry here and there. I was actually enjoying myself. I didn't have to work and the plant had never before been so quiet.

Then my supervisor yelled for me to go wait up in the break room, so I slowly walked off like a scolded child. It has been suggested that the cause of the outage is the construction currently going on in downtown Shelton where some sewer lines are being put in.

I wonder if I'll have to go to work tomorrow.

The Evil Eye

There is a man at work who enjoys teasing me. As it's not mean or an annoying kind of teasing, it doesn't really bother me. Every time he sees me, he simply says, "Smile." Then he stands there and stares at me until I smile. I am not much of a smiler. I'm not sure why, I've just never been one to smile a lot. But to get him out of my way, I'll smile.

Today it was time for a little pay back. I was sitting in the break room reading the paper when he walked in. I ignored him so he knocked on my table until I looked up. "You gotta smile," he said. I lifted my head and gave him a death glare. While I may not be much of a smiler, I have the death glare down. I don't even realize it's power. I stared him down until he walked away and went back to the paper.

Later in the day he came up and apologized for bothering me. "I didn't mean to," he said, "I was just playing with you to make you smile."

I told him I knew that. I was just playing with him back. He went on to explain that my look had worried him a great deal. "The stare you gave me ... I really thought I had upset you." No, not really. I was just giving him a taste of his own medicine. He was quite relieved. We'll see if he asks me to smile again tomorrow.

Can't Seem To Get It Right

So once again it seems I am pissed off at the moronic happenings of the world and I'm relying on AH to help me vent. Two weeks before I was to move back home, I came back for Memorial Day weekend. During that weekend I went into Big 5 to fill out all the necessary paper work so I would be ready to start when I returned in a couple weeks. The paper work process takes about a week, then they have to put me on the schedule. I was totally excited because they had given me a raise and promised me more hours and I would have Wednesday nights off for softball. We decided I would start on Wednesday the 13th. I thought I was set. Oh how naive I can be.

I came home two weeks later and called my manager, Troy, to find out when I would be working that Wednesday. Turns out my main manager, Paul, forgot to put me on the schedule. "Of course he did," I think. I was annoyed and expressed so to Troy. He sympathized and promised I would be on the schedule the next week. Sunday the 17th rolls around and I call Troy again to find out when I would be working that week and he says "Ariel, you're going to be so mad at me." *Silence* I couldn't speak. I knew what he was going to tell me and I was already pissed. All I could eek out was "No way Troy."
"I'm so sorry. Paul told me he didn't know what your availability was, so he couldn't put you on the schedule and now I'm looking for your information and I can't find your employee number or anything. You're not on any of our new hire or re-hire lists."
"Why not," I asked trying to stay calm.
"I have no idea."
"Okay...now what? I need to work Troy. I'm now two weeks without pay. What's going on?"
"I don't know. I'll figure it out though. I'll take care of you don't worry."

Well it was too late. I was beyond worried. My mom had taken that week off for my sister's graduation and decided to take me to Olympia to job hunt while she went shopping. I spend the week applying online and at location, and looking through the paper for something to do, but no one has responded. On Tuesday the 19 (the day of Ali's graduation) I called Troy again. He told me I had to come in and take care of some things I had previously been informed I didn't need to bother with. I went in and took care of business like always, and on Wednesday Troy finally called me, instead of the other way around. He asked me if I could come in on Saturday for a training day. I absolutely could. I didn't need a training day because I was already trained, but this way he wouldn't have to take hours of the schedule and I would still get paid. Plus they were going to teach me how to use the cash register, so I guess it really was a training day. While I was on the phone with him, again, I asked if I was on the schedule yet. He said no, but he had gotten a few people to give me some of their hours. Great. So naturally I asked him what days. He told me Tuesday and Wednesday. "That's it," I thought. Yup. That was it. 10 hours. That's it. I need MORE THAN THAT!!!! Fine. So, when I went in to work on Saturday I told Troy I was looking for a second job, because he had screwed me over. I hope they feel bad.

A Busy Busy Bee

Tuesday night - Capital 2007 Graduation.
Wednesday night - I made enchiladas for dinner.
Thursday night - I went to Ariel's and sorted through her old clothes. Then we went to my house and played pool.
Friday night - I came home from work (so glad that it's Friday) and realized I haven't blogged in a while.

The above are my excuses as to why you have not heard from me recently. Also, this entire week I was on the plugger with the yellow paint. It was depressing.

His name is not Jeff

I hope at some point I run out of embarrassing work stories. For the time being they just keep coming. It's as if getting a random phone number, accidentally staring at someone's lazy eye, and being asked it I like paint fumes isn't enough. Oh no, this also had to happen:

The plant is very loud so everyone wears ear plugs. It's quite difficult to hear and nearly impossible to talk to each other on the floor. My machine jammed up so I called the millwright so he could come fix it. I called him on the little red phone on the post and said, "#8 has a plug stuck."

The millwright came and he fixed. As he was leaving he said, "By the way, I'm Jeff."

"O," I replied, "I'm Christina."

"No, I'm Jeff."

"I heard you, I'm Christina. Nice to meet you. Thanks for your help."

"No, I'm deaf."

That's right. He wasn't telling me his name at all, but rather trying to let me know he was deaf and his hearing aid didn't work well on the floor. When I call, he said just to say the plugger number, and not the problem. His real name, I am still not sure of.

Have someone say "I'm deaf" to you while wearing ear plugs and you will understand how it can easily be mistaken for "I'm Jeff."

A Special Mind Set

There is one, and only one, part of the job I look forward to every day. It is the only task I derive real enjoyment from. After I finish plugging a stack of wood, I get to replace it with another stack. I then have to mark the new stack so that the grader (who sorts the wood after I plug it) knows which sheets came from my stack. I mark the wood by spray painting two corners.

After tapping my foot for two hours, the chance to step down and spray paint something is a welcome relief. My favorite paint to use is the silver. The worst color is the yellow because you can't even see it on the wood so you might not as well spray paint the wood at all.

It's a good day for me at work when I get to use the silver paint. It's a not so good day when I have to use the yellow paint. In the world of plywood making, there is little to derive enjoyment from.

I decided to briefly tell the grader how much I look forward to my brief spray painting moments. He looked at me with a straight face and said, "Why do you like it so much? Is it because of the fumes?"

I silently shook my head and went back to work. I recounted the tale to my father and he said I just have to get used to that kind of mind set in my particular work place. In the future I think I'll just plug and keep my comments to myself.

An Eye Full

I accidentally stared at someone today. For several minutes. How can you accidentally stare at someone?

Perhaps you were sitting in the break room with nothing to do so you started gazing around at the walls. You continued just gazing off into space, letting your eyes scan the room for anything of interest while at the same time remaining completely disinterested.

Perhaps during one of these scans a fellow worker's eye caught your interest. The eye wasn't looking at you, it caught your interest because there was something just slightly off about it. Imagine that you continue staring at the eye, debating whether it's slightly crossed or maybe a little lazy. By this time of course, the eye is looking at you, but you're lost in your thoughts and have failed to notice.

Until the fellow worker waves his hand at you to get your attention. Then all of the sudden you realize you've been staring directly into this person's eye, which may or may not have some imperfection. I'm still not sure. I mumbled something about staring off into space and did what I always do when embarrassed. I turned bright red and high-tailed it out of there.

I'm listening...

I've become enough of a familiar face around the plywood plant now that people who once always remained silent in my presence, are beginning to talk in front of me. Today during lunch I sat at a table with two others and ate my lunch. I'm friendly and I'll smile and such, but I'm not very talkative. I still keep to myself.

The two other people who sat at the table apparently thought that because I wasn't talking, I wasn't listening to their conversation, despite the fact that they were right next to me. I wasn't eavesdropping, I was just within blatant hearing range. One of them mentioned that it was hot yesterday. He looked my way, so I nodded in agreement.

"See, she agrees with me," he said. The other occupant of the table responded, "She doesn't even know what she agreed to. She's not listening to us."

I don't know why they thought I wasn't listening. I don't know what else they thought I might be doing. It was weird. Maybe they thought my ear plugs were still in.