A Day of New Information

So as my very boring, yet practical, title says, a couple of days ago I had an immense day of discovery.



1. I discovered one of managers truly does hate me, and I'm not exactly sure why. She basically had someone else tell me, say I had a bad attitude, and wasn't doing things right because I was moving between stations (when I thought it was good to help people out...). I think the attitude thing is because I wasn't really participating in their conversations, but 1) most of the people I work with, especially the leads are all a lot older than me and their conversations tend to revolve around partying and sex. I don't have much experience with those things, and so I tend to keep quiet, smile and do my work. I like most of the people I work with; I am friends with most of the younger (teens) people, and with some of the older ones who also don't necessarily participate with the others. And 2) When I go into new situations, especially with people who have known each other a long time and are older than me, I tend to observe before I participate. I know this is something I have to work on, but I started work kind of like a deer in the headlights, and I think things have improved immensely since then. So my manager is, of course, in charge of scheduling, but before having this other person talk to me, has never tried to initiate a conversation, other than to tell me to go home early, never went to college and is a single mom. People at work know I'm going to MIT, because they ask, and I kind of think she thinks that I am just a spoiled rich kid doing this job for fun, while the others live alone and need rent money. I may not live alone and need to pay rent, but I have to make money for school. Point blank. So I think she is just kind of jealous and resentful of me. We have also worked together once, with her best friend and they made me go home early. But things have gotten a little better since then I think, I hope. I have talked to her just like in casual conversation, and I am talking more on the line. Hopefully things will be okay. I only have 6 more weeks.

2. My car died. I mean literally, it just died. I was driving home from work, and when I was on the highway in 4th gear it didn't feel like it was getting any gas when I pushed on the gas pedal, and it was slowing down, so I switched into 3rd gear, and it was okay. And then I got off the highway because of major traffic and after the light, 3rd gear was having some issues. Then maybe 2 miles up the road, after I had to stop at a stop light, the max speed was about 5 miles per hour. So I pulled over, unsure exactly what was happening, and sort of mad because I just had to put a new clutch in my truck, and now this. This guy pulled over, and I was sort of wary, but after some inspection, he said he thought it was the fuel pump and there was nothing he could do, so he left. Luckily I had a (stupid) book, so I had something to do to kill time until my dad came. And this day was a scorcher. Kind of sucked. My truck sounded so sick though, if I tried to start it, it would sort of gurgle, and then stop. My dad came, but was on a conference call, and so he closed all the windows (no breeze), stuck his head in the car and talked on the phone. This was unbearable, but we had to wait for the tow truck. I got off work at 2:30, the tow truck came at 5, and I got home at 5:30. Basically 3 hours on the side of the road. Exciting day. Now I don't know if my parents are going to help fix the truck, or whether he is truly dead, which would be really sad. I love my truck, with my CZ and rowing stickers. His name is Fred and I hope he lives.

3. I learned that my best friend has decided to go to school in Utrecht, the Netherlands. She was going to go study trumpet performance at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, but she was never very excited about that and she went to this trumpet camp, and there was a professor from this school in the Netherlands and after about a week of deliberation, she is officially going to Utrecht School of the Arts. This was just sort of sudden and not something I evre had expected from her, but I am a big advocate of international, independent experience and I think it will be good for her. And now I have just another excuse to go travel.