Thursday, June 29, 2006

it's been more than once that i've heard friends here (both americans and asians) say that they have this urge to just quit their job at the park and go off, be it back home or travelling around the states. it's already happened that 2 singaporean girls were here for only a week working at johnny rockets before they decided that they couldn't and didn't want to take it anymore and just packed their bags and left. as quick as that. decisive i say.

i've thought about quitting before, but it's not till now that this strong urge to just say "i quit" surfaced. i want so much to leave this place now because things have changed. the working environment is no longer the harmless innocent place it used to be. so many things have happened at skyride refreshments where i work. all the politics among the higher people just makes me sick to the core. all the trivial disagreements among coworkers over practically nothing make me wonder if some individual's mental age doesn't match up to the chronological age.

it's downright ridiculous.

add in the big trouble i'm having with my contract end-date and i really might as well pack my bags and say bye bye to cedar point now. it's horrible. why the hell did i travel 40 hours to get here, only to work so hard, to have to put up with attitudes from co-worker(s) and the higher pple, to have travel plans disturbed because of inflexible management?!

why the hell did i?!

this is really pissing me off. if only the girls were here. if only dear was here. if only mummy was here. they would make me feel so much better.

actually teared over how miserable i felt today, while serving guests over the cash register. can anyone imagine that. i couldn't before either.

William is no longer skyride's supervisor and the worst part is that we love him so so so much, he worked with us from the day skyride opened for business this year, he's flexible and he's understanding. and he's not with us anymore because of higher pple who are bent on transferring him. the new supervisors barely know us and i barely know them.

how am i going to get my 2nd off day this week to go to chicago? how am i going to get my 3 off days approved for next week so that i can go to washington and i've already booked my tickets? how am i going to get a flexible schedule for my last week of work here such that i can leave earlier?

HOW. somebody tell me.

Gone shopping here twice already and it’s only been 6 weeks here. Rather I should say that I’ve spent more than I should have in these 2 shopping trips…..

Shopping trip 1 @ Lodi on 7^th June 2006

About 30 of us in 2 cabs drove up to Lodi factory outlet which is about 2 hours away from here. It’s Huge.

Unbelievable, but I tried on at least 26 pairs of jeans, of which I bought NONE!! There’s something seriously wrong with my butt or my legs or hips, or maybe just all three. Tried on 4 pairs at Lee Jeans, 2 pairs at GAP, 20 pairs at Levi’s and I cant believe that none of them fitted. Sigh. How depressing. Especially when they were USD$8-10 at Lee; $15 at GAP and $20-23 at Levi’s!!! ARGH.

There was Tommy Hilfiger and Polo Ralph Lauren, GAP, Adidas and a lot more that I cant quite remember now. Oh oh….the yummiest shop was Pepperidge Farm! Though the prices are not all that much cheaper as I would expect it to be since it is supposedly a ‘factory outlet’, the range of cookies of all sorts there was amazing! Couldn’t resist and bought 3 packets of cookies!

Milano

Oatmeal cranberry

Dark chocolate brownie fudge

Doesn’t that just sound so gooooood?! Shared those with Sheryl since we are both cranberry fans. Had lunch at the foodcourt there. There was this stall selling Chinese food (the chef is from Guangzhou I think) almost all of us ate from there because we just missed Chinese food so much. Never thought I would miss Chinese homecooked food, but I DO!! Dinner was a Patty Melt from Arby’s. that was yummilicious too. And cheap-it was only $1.99!!

Shopping trip 2 @ aurora on 16^th June 2006

Requested to end work at 2pm when I was scheduled to end at 6pm. Initially Sean (my cute supervisor) didn’t wanna let me sign out which is totally ridiculous because there was already too many people working at skyride that day. William signed me out anyway and I took my stuff and ran out the back door before I got into any trouble. Quite literally ran off.

Met joey britmand and shaosheng, and the 4 of us drove up to aurora which took nearly 2 hours. Aurora is smaller than Lodi, but it just feels like a little cosy town because of the quaint little shops and the architecture just made it look like a farm. Should have taken photos. There was Aeropostle, Fossil, GAP, DKNY, Polo Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Adidas, Jockey and more.

The 4 hours that we spent there wasn’t enough for me to cover dkny and ck. Unfortunately. Sigh. Looks like I have to go back there….quite satisfied with my buys.

my energy level is so screwed up I have to type entries in word documents and save them before uploading them on blogspot all at once.

Was so so so pissed off by the management here last Saturday that I was fuming the whole bloody day at work. Initially when I requested to end my contract earlier at the Human Resources Office, they simply told me to fill up a form, provide proper documentation (to prove that there’s an official and valid reason) and it should be approved.

so there I got started on getting the ‘documentation’ that they required. As if it was not difficult enough to prepare the official letter, the recreation centre located in the apartment premises where I stay decided not to provide printing services anymore, and the next nearest printing facility was at the library in downtown Sandusky. After all the hassle of having friends to drive down and print it for me, HR told me that they are unable to shorten my contract!!!!

WHY?!

The reason they gave was that I signed the contract in October last year so I have to adhere to it. Ending my employment date earlier would result in a loss of bonus. And all I asked for was a WEEK’s advancement in ending my employment! ARGH. Tried explaining to them that it was official school matters that even involved an interview but NOOOOO, she couldn’t see my point that the interview thingy was arranged in May this year. What is wrong with these people?! Told her that I am unable to change the date because I need TIME to travel back home, it’s not as if I live next door to cedar point. Flatly, she said that I absolutely cannot end my contract earlier.

That is just pushing my limits to the max. so many things have not gone right ever since 6 weeks ago when work started here. And now I can’t even leave earlier!

I’ll find a way I know it. There’s absolutely no way I am going to stay put here till 31^st july because the flight to san fran has already been booked and paid for!

SIGH. This place needs to be more flexible. I think they need a lot of changes. Starting with the people in the management, and then the management regulations. That totally sucks real bad.

Dear….howwwwwwwwwwww………………..daddy wants me to stay till my actual date before ending my employment. He said, nevermind that I can’t go traveling with my friends at the same time, why not just come home straight. Well, my answer to him was short and simple: N.O.=NO. this is infuriating.

Mummy might be sending some stuff over here. Yay! Miss mummy and pa and chuan. Sigh.

This week’s off day should be fun I hope. Joey, britmand, shaosheng and I are having off on the same day. Same as last week. Again. Went to aurora last week but this week we’re planning to drive up to Cleveland just to see what it’s like!!

Next week is gonna be exciting too: driving up to Chicago with the bunch of Singaporeans Malaysians here. For a couple of days. Gotta call off from work on one of the days. And the week after that, joey, Sheryl, shaosheng and I are flying up to Washington dc for a few days!! Can’t wait for that to happen!

Till then, just gotta bear with the silliest events occurring everyday from the natives here. What can I say.

Monday, June 19, 2006

sheryl and i at niagara falls...isn't it beautiful?!

more pics of niagara falls later!! this is the american falls by the way. i've got shots of the horseshoe falls and the bridal veil falls.....

more updates laterrrrrr

Gone shopping here twice already and it’s only been 6 weeks here. Rather I should say that I’ve spent more than I should have in these 2 shopping trips…..

Shopping trip 1 @ Lodi on 7^th June 2006

About 30 of us in 2 cabs drove up to Lodi factory outlet which is about 2 hours away from here. It’s Huge.

Unbelievable, but I tried on at least 26 pairs of jeans, of which I bought NONE!! There’s something seriously wrong with my butt or my legs or hips, or maybe just all three. Tried on 4 pairs at Lee Jeans, 2 pairs at GAP, 20 pairs at Levi’s and I cant believe that none of them fitted. Sigh. How depressing. Especially when they were USD$8-10 at Lee; $15 at GAP and $20-23 at Levi’s!!! ARGH.

There was Tommy Hilfiger and Polo Ralph Lauren, GAP, Adidas and a lot more that I cant quite remember now. Oh oh….the yummiest shop was Pepperidge Farm! Though the prices are not all that much cheaper as I would expect it to be since it is supposedly a ‘factory outlet’, the range of cookies of all sorts there was amazing! Couldn’t resist and bought 3 packets of cookies!

Milano

Oatmeal cranberry

Dark chocolate brownie fudge

Doesn’t that just sound so gooooood?! Shared those with Sheryl since we are both cranberry fans. Had lunch at the foodcourt there. There was this stall selling Chinese food (the chef is from Guangzhou I think) almost all of us ate from there because we just missed Chinese food so much. Never thought I would miss Chinese homecooked food, but I DO!! Dinner was a Patty Melt from Arby’s. that was yummilicious too. And cheap-it was only $1.99!!

Shopping trip 2 @ aurora on 16^th June 2006

Requested to end work at 2pm when I was scheduled to end at 6pm. Initially Sean (my cute supervisor) didn’t wanna let me sign out which is totally ridiculous because there was already too many people working at skyride that day. William signed me out anyway and I took my stuff and ran out the back door before I got into any trouble. Quite literally ran off.

Met joey britmand and shaosheng, and the 4 of us drove up to aurora which took nearly 2 hours. Aurora is smaller than Lodi, but it just feels like a little cosy town because of the quaint little shops and the architecture just made it look like a farm. Should have taken photos. There was Aeropostle, Fossil, GAP, DKNY, Polo Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Adidas, Jockey and more.

The 4 hours that we spent there wasn’t enough for me to cover dkny and ck. Unfortunately. Sigh. Looks like I have to go back there….quite satisfied with my buys:

Fossil watch $19.99
Fossil watch $29.99
DKNY watch $39.99
Fossil coin pouch $6
Fossil watch tin $4.99

Aeropostle tee $3.19

Adidas cap $10.98
Adidas tank $9.99
Adidas tee $9.99
Adidas big tee $5

GAP capri jeans $18
GAP capri pants $14

can't remember what else i got, but that's about it. better not let daddy see all these. he'll flip. haha.

it's interesting, today is Gay Pride day!!! haha. sheryl said she attended a gay parade while she was in Cleveland the past 2 days. interesting stuff wish i was there to check it out!

off day today but didn't do much. initially intended to go downtown but after hearing esmond (and being convinced by him), decided not to already. went running (2nd time running here!!) in the morning, there are some beautiful houses around this area i tell u. but of cos there wasn't any camera to take pics. oh well.

missing all of u back at home now......miss u dear.

Friday, June 02, 2006

this is a very belated post, i'm so sorry dear......

Thursday, June 01, 2006

skipped work yesterday because i simply did not feel like slogging for the day especially not when i got back to the apartment at 12am the day before. so here goes the story of the girl who skipped work:

my schedule for monday was supposed to be 8am-6pm. i planned to wake at 8am to call Skyride refreshments (which is where i work) to inform the supervisor that i was having cramps and thus wont be able to turn up for work. unfortunately, i only got outta bed at 830am( late as usual sigh) and tried calling my workplace extension number.

unfortunately again, the call could not connect and i had no choice but to call the foods main office. sigh. i was transferred to talk to this absolutely horrible lady manager or something, shall not mention her name here but shes definitely not well-liked at all haha. anyway, she told me that i would get double the demerit points if i din turn up for work because it was a public holiday (memorial day for the americans) and simply wouldn't listen to my explanation that i was too sick to get my butt to work. horrid isnt she. she is.

of course i din want all that points. what for! so yea i went to work an hour late, at 9am and she promised to send me back home so that i wont get points. thats not the end of the story yet, my supervisor kept me working for an hour and din want to sign me in (or out) after that and just wanted me to go back like that. of cos i wasn't going to agree to work for an hour and not get paid cos that is totally ridiculous...i know it's not good work behaviour but i blatantly gave him the black face and argued my way through to get my USD$6.25 for that hour of work. yea i got it in the end, but not because he relented. it was only because this cute spanish guy stood up for me that;s how i got paid on the day i skipped work. well, thanks sean.

spent the rest of the morning with sheryl and isaac at the beach, got a slight tan but not tan enough. haha, isaac was totally down on his luck, he went wading in lake eerie (which is the sea the beach is attached to) and found out that there were hoardes of dead fish floating in there. haha!!! i'm getting the photos from him soon!

we walked back to the theme park and ate this marvellous pastry thingy called "elephant ears"!! it's really something like crispy prata covered with cinnamon sugar except that it is HUGE! gosh i love that stuff! and yea wehad cotton candy which was on ly 25cents..how cheap is that.

sheryl left for work shortly so isaac and i caught x-men 3 at the cinema near the sandusky mall. we managed to get a burger lunch at Wendy's before the show started. the show was alright i guess, although it clearly showed that isaac was and still is a x-men fan. haha. we had dinner at this diner called Steak n Shake after the movie. the burger was great....i had a philly steakburger which really is a double steakburger covered with good-tasting stuff and he had a mushroom onions double steakburger. but the highlight of the dinner was really the milkshakes we had. it was really really good!!

beat this: i had a cheesecake-dark chocolate split milkshake and he had a chocolate chip cookie dough milkshake! it even sounds awesome la...wait till u all see the photos we took! couldnt even finish the milkshake and we brought it back to enjoyyyyyyyyyyy! haha, that is the work "enjoyyyyyyyyyyy"

finished my first tub of ben and jerry's ice cream last week. i had a dublin mudslide and yummilicious cant even describe how i liked it. haha. couldnt resist getting another tub when i dropped by wal-mart last night, so yea, there's a fossil fuel sitting in the freezer now. haha. sinful sinful!

so accident prone, the current list of accidents and injuries are as follows:

-cuts on both feet because of slipper straps
-huge bruise on inner arm, i dont even know where i got this
-skin peeling and cracking on the fingers of both hands
-bleeding grazed skin on both knees (knees again!!!) because i tripped and fell in the carpark last night because i was too sleeping and didnt see properly
-slight burn on arm because of hot oil from cooking french fries

haha so clumsy.

anywy i miss all u guys and girls back home alot!

not updated the blog for soooo long, sorry!!

i have yet to transfer the photos into the com so there aint no photos to show u all back home...it's been quite fun here, especially outside of work. haha. the friends here are really nice people and most of them are really easy to get along with, i'm so glad for that. unfortunately, the thai girls in my apartment are moving back to thailand end next week, sigh, i'm gonna miss them so much and their delicious cooking and how they always manage to sneak back pretzels, donuts, and loads of other stuff from where they work, such as TGI's Friday. haha.

the weather is no longer freezing, in fact it is totally far from that, wat a drastic change. 1 day it's freezing like crazy and raining and i'm wearing 5 layers of clothes to work, and the next day, the sun is out already and the winds are warm and i'm perspiring like a crazy nut in just 1 layer. haha.

went to the niagara falls last thursday together with most of the singaporeans here. it was amazing. and amazingly beautiful. *photos up soon!* the american falls, bridal veil falls and horseshoe falls which was the most breathtaking waterfall ever! even managed to go to the cave of the winds where we were this close (imagine me putting my thumb and forefinger near each other!) to the waterfalls. although the icy water nearly froze up all out toes (cos we were made to walk around in sandals and ponchos!) such an experience is whoa! one of a kind. haha.

erin 9:00 AM