Work, Work, Work Edition: Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Hope...?

...In my opinion, yes.

So, guess where I ended up after I was laid off from Fast Signs and quit my job at Papa John's? I went back to the place I swore I would never ever go again, Hope Enterprises. Why? Well, I had been laid off from three jobs in a row and I knew Hope Enterprises was always in need of employees. So there was definitely job security there. Another reason was because I had six years of experience under my belt so I knew the job. I think I should have re-read my blog post from the first time I worked at Hope though because perhaps I would not have returned. Here's a little snippet from the last time I blogged about Hope:

I was in my busiest semester at college, so things were pretty rough and stressful, and on top of that, the manager of the house I was working in was the absolute worst boss I have ever had in my life. Believe me, putting the words "absolute worst" in italics doesn't do it any justice. Now, I don't like to say bad things about people, so I won't. But if you happen to be a manager, or a boss of any kind, here are some tips to follow:

1) When one of your employees messes up and you're giving them a lecture about it don't ever use the phrase "That's a no-no." It's very condescending and will most likely piss off the employee.

2) If you need to call off and need one of your staff to fill in for you, don't whine and complain when they can't make it in especially if you have denied them time off when they were sick and treated them like crap.

3) If one of your staff calls because they just got backed into by a semi-truck while they were sitting in their car, one of the first things you should say are "Are you okay?" or "I'm sorry to hear that, do you need someone to take your shift?" You're first question should never be "Well, when can you come in?" in a very stern and uncaring voice.

4) The most important thing you need to remember is that if one of your employees has to be taken to the hospital because he/she passed out and a relative calls in to tell you they won't be in that day do not, I repeat DO NOT CALL THE HOSPITAL LATER AFTER YOUR EMPLOYEE HAS REGAINED CONSCIOUSNESS AND YELL AT THEM FOR MISSING WORK WHILE THEY ARE LYING IN A HOSPITAL BED!!! 

Follow these simple tips and you can avoid becoming the worst boss in the universe.

So, I should have definitely gone back and read that before returning. I guess another reason I returned was because things had supposedly changed there as far as pay, it was supposed to be much better. And it was...in a way. I'll explain more about that later.

So, I went to the house I would potentially be working at for an interview. The man that interviewed me was the director for that house as well as a few other houses. He was a very pleasant man, and I've seen him a few times out in public and we've had some good talks. What's really funny is I didn't realize it at the time, because I never saw the Aquabats Super Show until recently, but the M.C. Bat Commander looks a lot like the guy that interviewed me.

He looked like him except for the missing tooth, goggles, headgear and fake mustache. The actor actually uses black wax on his tooth to make it look like he's missing a tooth, but the guy that interviewed me had a large gap between his two front teeth and that's why he kind of reminds me of the M.C. Bat Commander.

Wow, I've gone way off topic. Where was I? Oh yea, the interview. It went great and I was on board. The house they put me in was a house on the back roads of Williamsport and it was considered to be a "behavior" house, meaning that the residents there were known for their bad behaviors. I didn't think the residents there were all that bad, plus I had worked with one briefly when I worked for Hope Enterprises before. I had one week of training to attend to get CPR, First Aid, Crisis Intervention and Med Certified. I trained with the woman who would be the new manager at the group home I would be working at. We were the only two trainees that week, so we got to know each other and had a lot of fun during the week of training. I knew that I would enjoy working for her. 

Things started out pretty well, the house I worked at housed four ladies. They were independent for the most part, they mostly needed meals cooked for them and needed someone to help them with purchases. Before when I blogged about Hope Enterprises I told about the residents I worked with. I didn't use their real names so that's what I'll do this time as well. 

We'll start with Patty. 

Patty was probably the one who needed most help out of all the residents there. She has schizophrenia so sometimes she would have sudden outbursts where she would throw an object across the room or yell and hit herself but she never physically lashed out towards anyone. Other than that she was the sweetest person and is very affectionate. She loves 80's music and enjoys watching her Golden Girls DVDs.

Jen was one of the more independent girls in the house. She was even aloud to be alone in the group home for up to two hours. So if we had to run an errand and she wanted to stay behind she could. Jen has Down's Syndrome. She is very short and her temper can be sometimes as well, but overall she likes to joke around and play board games with people. Always enjoys parties and getting a lot of attention, but if something doesn't go her way, look out! Here is some of her handy work when she gets angry.

Laura was deaf and going blind. She communicated well through sign language. I learned a lot of signs while working there. Once a week we would take her to the movie theater. She loves horror movies. I always loved taking her to the movies because I'm a horror movie fan myself. Unfortunately my supervisor wasn't, but she would always schedule herself to go along too. It was hilarious seeing her react to the movies. Laura eventually had to move out of the house into a barrier-free home because the group home was a split-level house and with her vision going it was becoming too dangerous for her. 

Carrie is the one I worked with before when I had worked at Hope years earlier. We got along great, she reminds me of my younger sister. She was probably the highest functioning resident living there. She helped us out a lot. She often helped with cooking. She even helped me comb Laura's hair. It would always get so tangled and I felt like I was hurting her when I combed it so Carrie was always happy to help. She would always tell me, "You need to learn how to do this if you have a daughter!" I do have a daughter now and I am getting some good practice. 

So those are the ladies I took care of when I first started at this house. Everything was fine, a little rocky at times, but overall it was a good place to work. I got along well with the staff, especially the supervisor since we trained together. 

BUT...

Then we heard that we would be getting a new resident to take Laura's place. At the time this resident's current residence was at the county jail. She was put in there for punching a doctor in the face during an ER visit. We'll call her Bessie. Did I mention Bessie weighed over 400 pounds? We were all dreading her coming to the group home. A couple weeks before she moved in, Jen made false accusations against our supervisor and our supervisor ended up getting transferred to a different group home. Reminds me of when I worked at Hope before and my supervisor there was fired, we were transferred and everything fell apart. 

Also, when Bessie moved in, our director (the one that looks like the M.C. Bat Commander) was no longer in charge of our group home. The boss I had talked about earlier, the one that called me while I was hospitalized and yelled at me, became involved with our group home. Eventually, the girl that she trained to be a director became the director of our group home. Our previous director would actually come to the group home and cover shifts. I remember one night when I was doing the overnight shift, he came in to do some paperwork at 3am to get caught up on a few things. Our new director never set foot in the group home. Within the first few weeks of Bessie moving in, all of my co-workers either quit or transferred. Bessie had already started intimidating the other staff and residents and almost caused the van to wreck by attacking the driver.

I was the only team member who stayed. Not because I wanted to. We were without a supervisor and a team for awhile. We had a manager transfer to our house temporarily and we had substitutes from the other group homes come to ours. Most of them worked there one day and then refused to come back. Everyday it seemed I had to perform a house orientation on a new person, and I had only been there for a few months. 

During this time things just got worse with Bessie. At least once a week Bessie would call for an ambulance to come get her. She made up some kind of injury so she could be rushed to the ER so the nurses and doctors there would shower attention on her. The police were often called to the group home as well. The one time I remember most is when Carrie and Bessie got into a fight and had to be separated. The police were called and Carrie's father showed up as well threatening to sue. I told him he should. 

An agreement was made and Carrie was transferred out of the group home into another one which made me really sad. She was the most helpful one there and I said before that she reminded me of my sister. Carrie is doing much better now since she left the house, but because of Bessie, the other girls in the house became much worse. It wasn't until after Bessie moved in that Jen became uncontrollable at times as the picture above shows. 

One day before Carrie left, Bessie had gotten into an argument with her. Carrie went into her room and locked the door. I was in the hallway keeping an eye on the situation. When Bessie couldn't get in the room she became enraged, turned around and punched me in the face. I yelled something at her, I can't remember what I said but my co-worker told me what I said and I don't usually use that kind of language, I was surprised. Anyway, after she hit me and I yelled, I ran outside to call the supervisor and talked to her for awhile. She told me to take one of the other girls on an outing to get out of the house for awhile. I thought it was a good idea. 

We eventually got a full time manager who was good for the job. And over time we built up a good team. We ended up getting another resident in the house shortly before I left. We'll call her Mandy. Mandy was pretty cool, very high functioning, much like Carrie. I didn't get to know her as well as the other residents so I don't have much to say about her. I felt bad about leaving but at the same time I knew I had to get out.

I've run into some of my former co-workers from there over the past year. Bessie is back in jail and things at the group home have gotten much better. I almost thought about going back, but I've had enough Hope for one life I think. I only have a couple more entries for the Work, Work, Work edition left to talk about, for now anyway. 

My Step Son was Offending Asians

If the title to this post sounds familiar, it's similar to the third post I posted on this blog. It was titled "I Thought I was Offending Asians". Go back and read it again, or if you've never read it, go back and do it now. But you don't have too, it doesn't directly relate to this story. The only similarity is that it took place at the same Chinese restaurant and Asians may or may not have been offended.

Okay, so a couple years ago I went to this Chinese restaurant with my wife and step son, Gabe. We usually get take out but for some reason we decided to stay and eat. Now before I go on any further I would like to talk about Spongebob Sqaurepants. 

What? 

Yes, Spongebob Squarepants. I know it seems like I'm going off-topic, but it's a very important part of the story. For those of you who don't know anything about Spongebob, he lives in a pineapple under the sea in a town called Bikini Bottom, his best friend is a starfish, works as a fry cook making Krabby Patties at the Krusty Krab and has a pet snail named Gary. Gary meows like a cat.





Alright, back to the Chinese restaurant. We all ordered our food and I can't remember what April and I ordered, but I do remember that Gabe ordered the Krabby Patty...I mean the Sweet and Sour Chicken. So we're sitting there eating and Gabe picks up a piece of chicken and says, "This looks like Gary from Spongebob" and then he held up the piece of chicken high and loudly started saying, "Meow, meow, meow!"

...in the Chinese restaurant.

April and I both thought it was cute and we started laughing, but then we remembered where we were and we remembered a popular rumor about Chinese restaurants and asked Gabe to please stop meowing. 

The End

Love, Kids, Marriage, etc.: Part 3

If you havent read part 1 or 2 yet:

Read part one here.

Read part two here.

Ok, now that you're all caught up I'm going to share what I did for our one year anniversary. No, I didn't skip the wedding, I'm talking about the one year anniversary of our first date, of course. I got a little creative with this one...OK, I got a LOT creative with this one. (Sorry for the poor grammar) This is similar to what I did with the flowers in my first post, except instead of searching for flowers in random places, I gave clues on how to find gifts as well as other clues. The first thing I did was tape a DVD to the front door with a note saying:

Watch Me.

and here's what was on the DVD:

Next, April went to the refrigerator and found a wine bottle with this note attached to it:

Stop your whining and enjoy this bottle of wine, but first, go into the dining room and look under the table. You will see another envelope with a note inside attached underneath the table. Do what it says. 

In the note found under the table was a picture explaining how to use my camera to get the next clue:

(Click on the pic to get a bigger view)

When April turned on my camera and looked at the picture, this is the message she found on the screen:

Time for some adventure! Go look in the Indiana Jones box on Dan's DVD shelf.

When April checked the box that my Indiana Jones movies were in, she found a pair of earrings and the next clue:

Just like Indiana Jones, you found the treasure, but your adventure is not over.

Open up Dan's laptop.

On my laptop was this message:

Push Play

This is the video she saw:

So when April looked in Gabe's fish tank drawer, she found the next clue:

Look inside the wooden chest in the office.

Inside the wooden chest in the office was one of my severed fingers....ha, ha, just kidding. I wanted to see if you were still paying attention. What April really found was a CD with a note on it that said:

Listen to me.

When she popped it in the CD player, this is what she heard:

When April went into the bathroom and opened the shower curtain, I was standing in there with a dozen red roses. It was interesting standing in the bathtub the entire time and listening to her go throughout the house finding all the clues. What was really funny was she almost decided not to watch the DVD that was taped to the front door. She almost decided to take a shower before watching it. That would have really been awkward if she found me standing in the bathtub holding a dozen roses with absolutely no context of why I was in there. So I'm glad she decided to watch the DVD first. This was probably the most fun I've had in surprising her and I don't know if I'll ever top it, but maybe it's about time I try. Stay tuned for the next installment of "Love, Marriage, Kids, etc..."

Valley Mosaic Podcast

Podcasts. I've been listening to them for the past five years. It's a great way to pass the time when you're working, doing chores, or driving in the car. I did a podcast once with my friends Jesse and Natalie. It never made it on iTunes. After recording the podcast I found out that there was more to podcasting than I thought. So I guess this is the best way I can share this podcast which we recorded about 4 years ago. I've broken the podcast up into 5 to 6 minute intervals. Some are longer than that, some are shorter. We basically describe what Valley Mosaic is about, we have an interview with a local artist named Jeremiah Johnson and talk about chippies. You'll have to listen to find out what chippies are. But I hope you enjoy it, here it is.

Valley Mosaic Podcast Part 1

Valley Mosaic Podcast Part 2

Valley Mosaic Podcast Part 3

Valley Mosaic Podcast Part 4

Valley Mosaic Podcast Part 5

Valley Mosaic Podcast Part 6

Valley Mosaic Podcast Part 7

Valley Mosaic Podcast Part 8

These last two audio clips are a couple bonus clips that didn't make it into the final cut of the podcast. The first one is a blooper and I need to explain something before you listen to it. Before we recorded the podcast we were talking about XXXchurch. XXXchurch is a ministry committed to helping those with porn addictions as well as helping those who feel trapped get out of the porn industry and they do so in a loving and compassionate way, not in a hate-mongering way. Anyway, I was talking to Jesse and Natalie about a show that had Ron Jeramy (a well known person in the porn industry) as a guest on the show. So with that being said, listen to the clip. The second clip is an outro that was supposed to end the show.

Blooper

Outro

Jesse is currently doing a podcast with Matt Barlow called Unfolded. They've partnered with the Homebrewed Christianity Podcast Network to bring this podcast to life, and it is definitely one to listen to. The podcast contains stories and as Matt says "...the podcast that attempts to find great meaning, without necessarily committing the error of defining it." You can find it here or search iTunes with the keyword "Unfolded". Believe me when I say it's much better than the one you just listened to.

Work, work, work edition: Whoa! He Stole that Guy's Pizza!

That's right, I was once a pizza delivery guy just like Spiderman, well, maybe not just like Spiderman except for the fact I really can shoot webbing out of my wrist. OK, that was a lie, sorry.

Anyway, I worked for the big Papa, that's right, Papa John's. While I was working at Fast Signs I decided to take on a part-time job and this is where I ended up. My main job was to deliver the pizzas, thank God for GPS. That was my favorite part about the job was to just drive around, listen to music and get greeted by people at their doorstep when I arrived at my destination. Everyone was always happy to see the pizza guy! They did not hide behind the couch like I was a Jehovah's Witness. Perhaps if Jehovah's Witnesses showed up with pizza, people would receive them better. Just a thought.

What I didn't like about the job was being in the store because when we weren't delivering we were making pizzas and cleaning up the place. Plus when were were delivering was when we made the most money. Tips were usually pretty good, our base pay was a joke. I kind of liked cutting the pizzas though, I got pretty good at that. Cut the pizza then put the Garlic sauce and the pepperoncini pepper in the box and it's ready to go! 

I won't say much about my boss so I'll just sum it up in once sentence. He was a lawyer by day who made his teenage kids work for free at Papa John's and not only had them work for free, but made them managers so he didn't have to pay managers wages, in fact he would make his 15 year old daughter and 17 year old son close up shop and they wouldn't get out of there until 2am on a school night but he was able to get away with it because his kids are home-schooled and according to Pennsylvania laws it's perfectly okay to do that, believe me, I looked it up, but just because the law said it was okay didn't change the fact that my boss is a total scum bag for doing that to his own children. Sorry, that was a little bit of a run on sentence.

It was a little rough when I first started working there. I started out working Monday thru Wednesday from 5:30pm till about 2am. Don't forget that I was working Monday thru Friday at my full-time job from 8:30am-5pm. It was a pretty rough start to the week. I remember asking my boss if my hours could be changed so I wasn't doing that three consecutive days. He just looked at me and said, "You're the low man on the totem pole." I replied "I know, I just thought you could consider the fact I've already worked a full day at my other job, and to do work two 8 hour jobs in a day for three days straight is a lot to handle." He looked at me and sternly said, "You're the low man on the totem pole!" 

Fortunately it didn't take long for me to climb that totem pole, the turnover at that place was ridiculous. It only took about a month to get to the upper middle of the totem pole. My hours switched to 5pm-2am Friday thru Sunday which made things a little easier on me, plus we were busier and the tips were better on the weekends.

I said on my last "Work, work, work" post that my job at Fast Signs was only a temporary position, so when I was done with that job I had to find full time employment elsewhere and when I did I had to say goodbye to my job at Papa John's as well since my new schedule wouldn't work with the one at Papa John's. So that was the end of that short lived career as a pizza delivery person. I was there for about two months. Stay tuned for the next "Work, work, work" edition. You won't believe where I ended up next. 

Oh yea, one other thing. At Papa John's labels would print out showing who's order it was, what they ordered, how much it cost, etc. It would also say "You're pizza experienced managed by..." and then it would display the manager on duty's name. One of the managers is named Christine and the picture below is what would print out when she was on duty.





I did not Photoshop this photo except to take out Laura's (the customer) phone number, the rest of it is untouched. Looks like Jesus is in the pizza business!

Jabba did What?!

The other day I remembered something funny that happened years ago when Star Wars Episode I came out back in 1999. I went to see it with my friend Nathan. After the movie was over he told me he thought it was funny when Jabba the Hutt flipped a creature off. I told him I didn't remember seeing that part and I argued that George Lucas would not have put something as inappropriate as that in a Star Wars film since they are family-friendly films for the most part. But Nathan insisted that there was a scene where Jabba flipped a creature off and he didn't understand why I thought it was inappropriate. Well, when the film came out on DVD I went out and bought it. To my surprise there definitely is a scene where Jabba flips off a creature. Check out the video below and if you don't want to watch the whole thing click on the 3:40 mark to see Jabba flip off a creature.



So yea, Jabba did flip the creature off, but it's not what I thought. I apologized to Nathan for misunderstanding what he said but he totally forgot we ever had the conversation.

Comic #4

Today I am bringing you my fourth and final comic, for now. One thing I've noticed about this comic and the other three that I've posted all have something in common. They all have to do with mixing up words or changing letters in words. I think this comes from a speech impediment that I have in which I often do things like this. I'm always fumbling with my tongue, but it always gets a good laugh. One of my most memorable times was when I was working in a group home and I was cooking some noodles for one of the residents named Rudy. My coworker asked me what I was doing and I said "I'm cooking roodles for Nudy." We both got a good laugh out of it. She carried a quote book with her and I think she entered that one into it. But anyway, here's the comic, hope you enjoy it!

Love, Marriage, Kids, etc.: Part Two

Read part one here if you haven't already.

In this post I want to talk about how I proposed to April. It was in November of 2009. One night I told her we should go to the Bullfrog Brewery for dinner (It's where we had our first date). I knew I had to do something creative, and that's when a horror movie gave me a great idea on how to propose.

Oops, sorry, that's the Spanish version

So, I decided to take the DVD out of the box and put the engagement ring in it's place. Clever, huh? The only problem was the tag line at the top "BEFORE YOU DIE, YOU SEE...". It was a little unsettling. So I came up with the idea to replace "DIE" with "SAY YES". So it read "BEFORE YOU SAY YES, YOU SEE.." and then of course followed by "THE RING". So I put the ring in the case and wrapped it in some wrapping paper. 

Part way through dinner I told April I left something in the car so I ran out to get it. I didn't know it at the time but she had a strong feeling I was going to propose to her that night. So when I came walking back in with a wrapped gift that looked nothing like the size of a ring box she was probably confused. I gave it to her and she unwrapped it. "It's a.......movie" she said. I said "Yea, it's really good, have you seen it?" "...um...yea."

Then she noticed the tag line at the top and she read it out loud, "BEFORE YOU...SAY YES???, YOU SEE THE RING?" Then she opened the box and there it was! I made sure to get down on one knee and ask her to marry me. Then her phone rang and a voice said "Seven days." and hung up. Ok, that last sentence wasn't true.

So that's the story of how I proposed. And if you're wondering, I got the ring at Petro's in Williamsport, PA. I highly recommend going there for your engagement, wedding, jewelry, etc. needs. How's that for some free advertising, Petro's? You're welcome!

Next time I do this series I'll talk about our one year anniversary since April and I met, it'll be a fun one.

Work, Work, Work Edition: Here's Your Sign

I worked for a company called Fast Signs for a short time in the Spring and Summer of 2010. It was only a temporary job so I don't have much to say about it. Basically what we did there was design signs for different businesses, for private use and we also did vehicle wraps. Not only did we design those things but we had to print them out and apply them to slabs of wood, metal, buildings, windows, etc. We made banners, street signs, decals, and even those signs you see in the outfields of baseball fields. 

One of our biggest projects was the Hometown Heroes banners which were hung on light posts all over the city. The Hometown Heroes banners had pictures of people who are serving or used to serve in the military. We scanned many old photographs, fixed them up in Photoshop if they needed it and then brought those photographs and the information about them into a design that we had already created. As hectic as it was, it was probably my favorite project we worked on. 

I worked on a small team. There were only three of us designers and a fourth person who helped us make the signs. It was a fun environment to work in. We had a TouchTunes jukebox that we got to play for free while working there and we had fun playing jokes on each other. Every Monday we ordered Chinese food for lunch and on Wednesdays we ate out at the local Mexican restaurant.

I really enjoyed this job, it's too bad it was only a temporary position. I also worked a second job while I worked at this one but I'll save that for next time.

Comic #3

Sorry, it's been over two months since my last post. We just moved and I'm working two jobs right now, so the fun stuff (blogging) has to be put on hold sometimes. But I'm actually working on an audio file right now that I'm going to put up on my blog with a slideshow to go along with it. I'm not going to tell you what it is right now, it's a surprise. Anyway, I thought I would share with you the third comic I've created. So here it is:

(Click on the picture to see it larger)

Okay, if you don't get this one, I'm not going to explain it to you. "The Name Game" (or The Banana Song) was written by Shirley Ellis in 1964 as a children's sing-a-long rhyming game. The Name Game reached #3 on Billboard's Hot 100 in 1965. Here's a video of Shirley performing The Name Game (The white bar goes away after five seconds, I'm not sure why it's there):

The Name Game has showed up in various movies and tv shows. My favorite instance is in the movie "The Money Pit" starring Tom Hanks and Shelley Long. In fact, I chose the name Brad in the word bubble in the comic because Tom Hanks picks the name Brad while he's singing the song. Here's the clip:

If you've never seen this movie, watch it, WATCH IT NOW! Unless you're busy, then watch it later. That's all I've got for today, check back again for more, hopefully it won't be more than two months next time.