Discharched from the Navy

After working at Old Navy for just over one year and seven months, Thursday marked my last shift ever at Old Navy. I made sure to use as many discounts as I could before they took my privileges away, and purchased a couple of shirts from Old Navy and new pair of pans from the Gap. I'm looking tres hot.

Had I not caught a cold, I think my last day would have been more exciting, but I was feeling pretty shitty. the shift went by really slow and felt much longer than a normal 7 hour shift.

The highlight of the day was when a customer asked me for help, stating that there he couldn't find the size of the article of clothing he was looking for on the floor. Taking his word for it without checking my self, I discovered on the computer system that we indeed had stock, so I went to get the staircase to look in the storage area on top. Meanwhile, my boss Scott came by and offered his services by looking up there for me. He couldn't find anything. That's when I decided to check on the floor myself, and low and behold they were in fact all there, so in the end I made Scott go up for nothing. The customer thanked me and started to walk away. However, as he was walking away, purely as a joke, Scott loudly and in a fake angry tone yelled at me saying "That's it! This is your last day here!". I missed it but apparently the expression on the customers face was as if he had seen a ghost. Priceless!

The coolest thing about that day was that when I had started my shift, The Arcade Fire's No Cars Go was playing on the Old Navy CD. When I took my lunch break it was playing again. Finally when I punched out and walked out from the back room for the last time, it was playing once again! Freaky!

Goodbye Old Navy, it's been a blast!

Joshua Budman, Employed Graphic Designer

Wednesday, I was my frist day at Jets, Sets and Elephants. The office is located at the corner of St Laurent and Cremazie Ouest. Not being familiar with the bus route and due to the bus strike, I got up really early and ended up getting there extremely early - before 8am. I went for coffee but by 8:30am I got bored waiting around and went upstairs.

Once inside I got a tour of the office. It's quite nice with many little offices and a few cubicles. there is a giant kitchen with a fridge and not one but two microwaves. They also like to brew coffee continuously throughout the day, so I think I'm finally going to get hooked on the stuff (for years I've been convincing myself I dont' drink "coffee" since I usually have fancy coffees like mochachinos or caramel machiatos at Starbucks).

I got to meet everyone at the place and they all seem very nice. I soon discovered that I have my very own office with a brand spanking new mac computer, a huge monitor, my own phone with an extension number and even my very own kleenex box!

I didn't know what to expect on the first day, but my new boss got me started right away! We sat down with he marketing person and we discussed what is planned for the company, how they want to produce about 17 different lines of products marketed for all kinds of people. Then I was given my first little project deadline, which was to fix up a particular label set on the computer, print them out, cut them and paste them onto bottles to have a mock up (sample) of the real thing. I was really surprised that when my boss came to check up on me and we ended up playing with the label file together, that when I gave a suggestion on something we should try, that she actually took my advice and tried it out, instead of giving me a speech like "well you're new and I've been doing this for 15years so your input isn't good enough" or something.

All in all, my first day was great.

Growing Up Way Too Fast!

I've noticed a lot of changes have been happening in my life, all for the good, but still they are changes.

I finished school in December and didn't really know what to expect in the new year. In the past few months I've gotten pretty frustrated looking for a professional, trying to figure out what I wanted to do, got booted out of my room while my brother, sister in law and nephew were living with us and at times even felt lonely.

However, things are starting to look up. I started to crack down in my job hunt. I've been preparing the past 2 weeks for a networking party held on Thursday. The agenda of the party is to give a 1 minute speech about myself to an audience of about 150 companies. Following the speeches, we are then given a chance to talk to all the employers who are interested in us and swap cards, info, etc. To prepare for this event, I totally redesigned my resume (making it more graphical looking than a simple word document), created a new business card, and am currently designing my very own website.

Today things got even more interesting. I had a second interview with a new company that is starting a new label for beauty/toiletry products. They are looking to train someone just out of school and seem to think quite highly of me. In fact, it freaks me out a bit since now I feel the pressure is on and I"m really going to have to work at it to keep this image they have of me as true as possible. I"m not exactly sure on my specific work tasks but I'll be working under the art director who will act as a mentor and really get me involved in the beauty/fashion/marketing realm. I'm also going to have to work with the team and not only listen to what ideas they have to offer, but offer my own ideas as well. I get to use my chemistry skills of researching journals for experiments by researching for trends in the market - what's hot, what's not, etc. It sounds very push-pull. I'm going to get my own office with a brand spanking new Mac!

With that in mind, I'm going to have to quit my job at Old Navy. I'm playing with the idea of maybe working on Sundays, but only time will tell.

I've also noticed a change in my need for going out. I've started to slow down a bit. While in Australia, I went out almost every night (of course, I was on vacation). Now I go out maybe twice a week and I've hardly been drinking. I haven't gotten drunk in the longest time. This may partly be due to my getting older in age. I think the fact that I"m dating someone is also a factor. Yes you heard correctly, I'm dating someone. I really don't want to go into detail so here's the answers to the obvious questions:
-It's been 3 months
-She's Jewish
-We met through the Internet

Since dating someone, of course I've been spending a lot of time with her, and also driving more downtown, hence the decline in drinking. Plus, instead of going out partying all the time, I've come to enjoy just staying home and watching a movie.

So as much as I can only hope for more positives changes to occur in the future, my plan right now is to handle all the current ones and see what happens.

Getting older sure is scary!