Would you like fries with that primer?

In fifteen minutes, I'm going to Sherwin Williams to apply for a position as a stocker and sales clerk. It's a part-time gig, and, if I get it, will be enough money to cover a few bills each month. It'll also leave me enough time to work on the business writing business. I just love that phrase: "business writing business." And if the paint store doesn't work out, Burger King is just across the street.

I've got a ticket to ride

It occured to me at lunch yesterday (over cream of mushroom soup and a hot garlic turkey and pepper jack sandwich), that I can take the money Northland's giving me for the vacation days I accrued and use it to start the business writing business Meg and I have been talking about for the last year. So I jumped in. I've got a domain name registered, a hosting service, a template that I built, some initial copy, a business plan mostly finished, plans for letter head, business cards, and envelopes, a plan for my home office IT infrastructure, and now, I have both financing and an opportunity to work on my project full time. Gee, thanks, Northland. This is almost as nice as that trip to San Francisco. *I'll post the link to the new web site when it's ready to take its first toddling steps into the world. Until then, you'll just have to live vicariously through my reports here and/or in person.

How do *you* spell relief?

I went back into the office today to drop off a couple odds and ends, and to take a look at my personnel file. I was prepared for the worst. In fact, when I asked the HR director if I could get a copy of the file, he said, "Well, I don't know if you can have a copy of your file." I stared him straight in the eye and replied, "I'm pretty certain I can." "Maybe I should check the law." "By all means, please do. In fact, that would be great." "You know, I don't think there's actually anything discipline-related in your file." "Well, why don't we go look, and if there's nothing, then that solves this little dilema of ours." So we looked. And there was nothing in the file except my resume and clips, some salary information, and a little other paperwork. So I had the HR director write me a note saying there was nothing discipline-related in my file. He signed it and dated it. So that's good.

Done

I'm done with Northland College, at least for now. I have a lot of really good friends there, and a lot of people I really respect, but yesterday at noon, I submitted my resignation to the HR director. He called me into a meeting and told me that my boss was out to try to fire me and wouldn't it be easier if I took this severance package we've preapred and voluntarially resigned? Truth be told, I was thinking hard about handing in my resignation yesterday anyway. I've been bent over the barrel by my boss one too many times to have any interest in continuing to work with her. So today I'm cleaning out my desk and computers, and I hope to be done with Northland at the end of the day. Oh, I don't know if I'll be done with the college forever. It has too much potential, too much promise, to not lure me back into doing something for it at some point. But for now, though, the only things I want to do are to leave this experience far behind me in my psyche but maintain my contacts and good realtionships with my friends there. I'm sure I'll be posted the high (and low) points of this soap opera at some point. Stay tuned. If that's your cup of tea.

Supersize me

We just saw "Supersize Me" by Morgan Spurlock. Man, I could feel my arteries hardening and my body weakening throughout the whole thing. I've definitely been known to go for a fast food burger and fries on occasion (just once or twice a month, thank goodness!), but I think I have to swear it off, now. I know it doesn't address the "fast" in "fast food" (as fast food tends to leave out the "food" part), but after a few down and dirty mental calculations, I think I could eat organic burgers and fries that I make myself from ingrediants that I get from local farms for roughly the same (or maybe even a little less) cost of eating at BK (my food brothel of choice). Take that and fry it, McDonalds!