Oh dear, what a week, what a weekend and tomorrow it all starts over again! Sadly I haven't had one second to knit so this will be yet again another update about my work and not about knitting. Next week I promise to talk about it as I KNOW that there will be a yarn store in our itinerary. LOL! We will be working in a mall and there's a yarn store called Woolaine in Orleans, I will have to stop there on my lunch hour.
The job is fun, employees in Walmart's are always nice to us but foolishly think we can't talk in english. So they basically check us out, talk about us and then I walk up to them and ask them a question in english. I just love to see their faces. LOL! Then once they seem to think I am friendly they keep coming by my section and talk. Everyone keeps talking to me, sure it's nice but I'm paid to count, not entertain bored employees. ;) We worked in three stores and I hated the first one with a passion, I made two errors in the first hour of work. I felt so down and was ready to go pack and leave for home. On the third day I have changed teams and now work with Carl with the greatest and friendliest of supervisors. We even had lunch with him that day. He doesn't mind if I count slowly or not, the more I do, the less he has. He's a very simple guy that just wants to be treated like the others, doesn't like to be called boss, so he is more like a friend than a mean supervisor. lol!
I get motion-sickness in cars so travelling with 8 people in a van is hard for me. I've been taking Gravol and that's helping. I just can't knit on the road though. Our wake up calls this past week were at 5:15, 4:45 and 5:30am, those are hours I have never woke up on purpose for. LOL! Every morning we stop at Tim Horton's for breakfast and then eat in the van. Oye! Not an easy task for me, coffee burns and then you drop half of your bagel, sesame seeds all over the place! LOL! Luckily in our hotel room we had a mini-fridge so we bought some milk and those kiddie sized cereal boxes and ate cereal in the morning in our room. Others heard about this so then mornings became more busy in our room as people felt like they should crash in with us and talk with us in the morning. Then after work we'd come back to the hotel and everyone would knock on our door to see where we'd go eat that evening. Sure we are friendly but I thought this was too much, Carl and I never got a second alone, well until we'd kick people out because we wanted to go to sleep! LOL!
One evening our phone was busy so a 'friend' came knocking on our door when they got the busy signal. I was talking with the kids and it just aggravated me that they knew someone was using the phone but felt compelled to bother us yet again. Oh well, at least people weren't avoiding us. Lesson learned though, this new week, we're not telling anyone our room number, see how long that lasts! LOL! ;) The kids loved talking on the phone each night and we felt like we wren't too far from them after all. :) I had made them a little paper chain before leaving on monday so each day they took off a chain piece and knew how many more days it would be before we came back. Also I gave them each one of my stuffed Elmo's (a girl can never have too many!) and instructed them to give him kisses and hugs each time they thought of us. I brought my own Elmo (it's a SMALL one, don't worry!) and he would give me the kiss & hugs and kids gave theirs to me. Each night on the phone, they would ask if Elmo gave me all their love, it was very special to know they remembered and felt it was important that Elmo was a connection between all of us. :)
Eating healthy has been easier than I thought, breakfasts were easy (cereal at hotel and bagel at Tim's), then lunches were soups (once at hotel the other at Tim's), once at Subway. We stayed away from junk food and soft drinks. The idea is not to gain too much weight on the road, it's very tempting but so much more worth it to eat well. Supper times were my favorite meals, on the 1st night we made spaghetti in our room, someone had brought along an electric 'over top' with 2 coils on it. The next night we went to a home-style restaurant and had fajitas, last night was Swiss Chalet chicken, yummy! Those were the only fries I had all week. On thursday right after work, we came back home. Stopped on the road for a sandwich and had a cola. So we did good, next week will be even better, hopefully there will be fridges in our room again and we'll be some fresh produces if we can find a grocery store. Walmarts aren't always in the best areas, sometimes the Walmart is the only store in the area, so we can't buy much there, though the chunky soups were pretty filling! ;)
Hey, did you know some Walmart even sell Krispy Kreme donuts? They are delivered every day, oh my!!! Of course I noticed this in a Quebec Walmart and we are now working in Ontario Walmarts. LOL! Soon enough, we'll be working in our own province, french will be the language of most people. It'll be fun to work and visit the whole province.
hugs, I miss reading blogs so much but I really love my job too. Now I can afford to buy yarn, just can't find the time to knit! LOL! Soon I hope I'll find my own pace and knit on the road. Until then, wishing everyone a great new week! My 1st 2 week paycheck is on friday and on that special day we will register Zoe in kindergarden!!! This will be a very exciting week for us. :)
Last little note, I have received a sample card from Ozeyarn (forget if I have said so previously) and am very satisfied with all the samples they included, their colors are beautiful. Just thought I'd share so don't miss out and order your own FREE sample card and buy some yarn from down under. ;)