Year: 2013

Hey

My life is about to see a world of change. If I wanted to be cute and match the content of this post… I would have said I would ‘sea’ a world of change. Just a missed swapportunity.

It should end up being one of those times you look back in a coupe of years and think ‘yeah, things really changed then’ or ‘that’s when things got real’ .. That is the kind of feel the next few weeks/months hold for me.

It is quite a feeling. I sometimes anticipate it, sometimes I dread, other times I am a bit afraid. Simply put: there are a whole lot of unknown variables that are in play. Things that can’t be accounted for at this time but that doesn’t matter to them, they still linger.

I really hope that things turn out for the best. Unfortunately, my theory of being prepared for this worst- isn’t something that I can really do this time around.

Constant pressure within my chest. Good thing its all in my head and only a semi-chemical reaction.

On to happy things.

This weekend my parents rented a car (as we are conserving the miles on my car) and we went to the beach. We ventured down to the same beach we had been to countless times before. Sunset beach. Not far away from Long beach and Seal beach. This time we didn’t fully immerse in the water. Nor did we all stay as a group. Instead almost as a sad sign of times to come we went our different ways and stayed that way until we left. Maryia and myself walked along the coast until it came to an end. Literally. The beach stopped at some navy site. There was a fence around the area and signs saying no pictures were allowed. We began our walk back and noticed that we overlooked a sign that said nobody should go to the end of the beach because it was military grounds.

Ah well. Nobody said anything. Good thing too.

Then we went to eat at a place as California as they come. Yep, we went to In-N-Out.

Afterwards we trekked down to the historic Santa Monica Pier.

All this time we had wanted to visit. It’s such a cool area… and I don’t mean that in a funny way. It has so much history baked into it. It has a bit of everything. Small coasters, games, fishing, the end of Route 66, to the carousel designed by the guy who worked on the famed Coney Island.

Why hadn’t I gone sooner? I should’ve… that’s for sure. So traffic wasn’t fun in the area but totally worth the experience and history.

It would had even made a killer date night with the wife. But alas, we kept putting it off.

Needless to say, the weekend made Maryia and I appreciate California that much more (as if we needed to any further). It also gave me a chance to look into things now past and things that are all but here to stay.

Other good news, Jars of Clay new album dropped just a couple of days ago. Thanks to FreeMyApps I was able to get the album free.

So much to do…. & so many things running across my mind all at once. It is getting to the point that even music isn’t able to clam these thoughts. When I pray I usually end up falling asleep. Erg. At least thats the normal thing to happen at night. Not during the day… But you know what I’m talking about, don’t you?

The one thing I didn’t get to do is feel all artsy. There is a spot that would’ve made a pretty cool picture. Didn’t have the means to get to it and take that shot. Also will need to return to the SMP sometime as I missed out on some shots over there as well.

I’m not complaining. I like having reasons to return. The night itself was great. The thick fog rolled onto the beach and inland. The culmination of the sunset, the fog and the waves seemed to make the perfect crescendo to the end of our day.

just Pray

Over a year has past since we were married.

Time has been zooming by. We both sometimes note how we can’t believe we are starting to get up there in years. I know in ten or twenty years we will look back fondly of these years. Heck – probably in a year or so. Just feels like time keeps speeding up.

So back to the posts main subject. Our one year anniversary.

We had decided to do something fun. We were able (thanks to eBay bucks) to score free tickets to Knotts Berry Farm. A place that Maryia had not yet been to. It was one of if not the last theme park in the LA area that she had to check off the checklist.

Our original plan was to use these tickets on a day off from work (while working in LA/OC) and just being able to do fun things like that every so often. It turned into a… Sort of farewell. Sigh, good times and good memories.

Last year we went to Universal, Disneyland & Sixflags and even Seaworld. For our anniversary we went to Knotts.

All in all… We said it ranked a strong number 3. Still behind Universal and Disneyland. It was a bit surprising. I had visited before, but probably when I was only 6 or so. I couldn’t have been much older than that. Maybe even a little younger.

We happened to go on one of the warmer days, but it wasn’t that bad. We took in a lot of shows. Snoopy on Ice and some Peanuts shows. Visited Lucywood in Camp Snoopy. Had a chance to ride on an authentic late 1800’s locomotive train. I couldn’t help but think of BTTF 3 the whole time. Then we went on a ride on a stage coach. That was fun. All in all, we didn’t go on many rides but definitely kept busy with all of the shows that were offered.

We stopped to get a souvenir. A horseshoe with our names engraved. A nice older man who was the blacksmith stepped in and took care of us. He explained that he was about to get off work and was waiting for the next person to arrive. We didn’t have a problem in waiting- but he said he would get everything ready for us so that we would just have to check out when he arrived.

So we waited as he forged our small momento. About 15 minutes later he came over and apologized that the next person still wasn’t around. He went back to grab a bag, pushed it to us and said “here you go, don’t worry about it… I’m really sorry about the wait.” We were really touched.

A small blessing in the midst of everything. An anniversary gift from God and this kind man.

We then went to find a snoopy plush and some jam (since the horseshoe was free), besides you can’t really say that you have visited Knotts and leave without a Snoopy or some jam.

Funny side note. All day we were looking for a fruit stand to get something to snack on. We didnt see anything… Only Skittles and other candies. We passed and said that we would get something to eat later that night. Well, at 10:15ish, about the time we were leaving we stumbled across a fruit stand. How ironic is that?

Wait, why did we stay so late and yet not go on rides?!

Ok, well it was almost on accident.

You see, we went to see this thing called Texaco Country Showdown. It was one of the main events. It fit with all of the old west/native things that the park was full with. The show started at 7. Ended shortly after 10.

It was basically a country version of American Idol. There were some talented people on stage. It was the California state finals and they eliminated everyone and just one person moved on. Some girl in red won. Anyway.. some notable people have emerged from it in the past… “U.S. Past local, state, and regional winners include: Martina McBride, Garth Brooks, Miranda Lambert, Neal McCoy, Sara Evans, Brad Paisley and Billy Ray Cyrus”

So when that finished up we walked through Camp Snoopy again to see it all lit up with lights and made our way out.

Then we found a Coco’s to have dinner at. None were open! Only one. It happened to be across the street from Disneyland. We were able to enjoy a nice meal thanks in full to my parents for treating us.

That was it. If you are in the area and doing the theme parks, Knotts is worth going to.

just Pray.

Hey

For memory sake only I am going to blog about this next topic.

Hertz.

Yes the car rental company. I normally rent with Enterprise or Avis. Occasionally Fox. Not normally Hertz.

When we drove to Phoenix and back we decided it wasn’t wise to add 1400 worth of miles in such a short time so we rented a car. The cheapest thing possible for a couple days.

That’s what we got. The cheapest thing. A Chevy Aveo from Hertz. This thing was great. It had everything. Soiled seats, black carpeting (that once was brown), signs of multiple accidents on the body and almost 50k miles on this white ‘sporty 2011 Aveo’ and not to be outdone… some damage inside.

Oh boy. You shouldn’t have, really.

When we first checked in they told us they weren’t giving us that car. After a sudden change of heart they wanted to make sure it was full with gas. They came back and told us it was almost empty and that we should just return it on empty. They explained that they simply didn’t have any other cars so that was what we were getting.

Okay. As long as it runs right?

The front counter clerk took us outside to check everything over. Had us mark every soil and every rock chip we could spot, telling us that if there was ANY additional damage we were 100% liable for it. Then she tried to use scare tactics on us for using the rental insurance with American Express saying she had problems in the past with customers using it. I kept thinking to myself.. Really? I’ve never had any problems with it. It gave us a bad feeling. So despite the hassle we took the keys and left.

Well, it ran. We started off from far north LA county and made our way eastward. The further east we went the seemingly hotter it became. We turned the AC to Max. No change. In fact it was getting even warmer.

I thought it was me until I could feel my shirt sticking to my body. We weren’t even in Palm Springs and we were already in a sweat box.

Along the way I called AmEx to verify all the coverage for a piece of mind. Shorty after that they called me (See the previous post as to why).

We stopped to get gas. Thankfully it made the car and the AC (or lack thereof) not seem quite as bad. Little did we know that was just the beginning. Starting up over some of the hills along I-10 the transmission started Surging and jerking when shifting. Oh boy. Even better.

So we called Hertz. By this time we were closer to Blythe than anything.

First time we talked to them we were disconnected. On our second attempt they routed us to emergency dispatch. The guy on the phone didn’t have a clue where “BLYTHE??” California was. I had to spell the city for him. He insisted I bring the car to the closest location. According to him that was in Lake Havasu City. Considering that was out of our way we asked if they could come get the car (so we wouldn’t have to drive until the car broke down). There was no way they could do that because we were too far away. We either had to take the car to Lake Havasu or go to the Phoenix Airport. I said to him “you can’t help us can you?” After his reply of “nope” I promptly hung up on him.

We arrived at the airport some hours later. We waited for at least fifteen minutes to be seen as the 2 available agents were busy chatting with some of their friends at a counter directly in front of us. An older couple came behind us – speaking up about how incredulous it was that they were making us wait this long so they could relax and chat it up.

We were just tired, hot, sticky and still sweaty from driving. Mostly just ready to be done with that particular car. When they decided we were worth their time we stepped up to the counter. We calmly explained how we returned the car with a half a tank of gas. We wanted to know what they could do for us since we brought it back with more gas than they provided (plus I had them take into consideration all the problems we had).

“Uh, we can give you a coupon for 10% off your next rental, but that’s all we can do.”

Maryia was furious. She immediately let into the guy and asked to speak with his manager. The manager came out a little while later. Apologetic that we had so many issues. They asked if they could upgrade our car. We accepted. Then she said that she would make sure the car’s gas was on full… and insisted that we return the car on empty.

We agreed and starting from that point our experience with Hertz started to improve.

They set us up in a new 2013 Nissan Altima with nine thousand some odd miles on it. This car wasn’t loaded- but compared to the Chevy felt like a million bucks. It even had cruise control (yeah, at that point cruise control was an exciting option). It had a pretty nice stereo system too. We were actually impressed with how much we liked the car. Kudos to Nissan for building a nice car.

We drove all around in that thing. From North Phoenix, down to Chandler and back to the hotel in Tempe. After all that running around it was still sitting at a full tank of gas.

The next day was the interview. Afterward we filled up before starting back. It came to like 15 bucks. We drove to Quartzite and decided we should fill up at the last cheap place before the prices started to rise. Again, we spent about $15.

We drove all the way to the edge of Santa Monica then up to Santa Clarita. We were just down a quarter of a tank. The next day we took the car to some appointments we had. Didn’t move the gauge. I tried to bring the gas down so I sat outside listening to music with the car running for nearly an hour before we had to return it.

We ended up returning the car with over half-a-tank still left. I was amazed. I probably didn’t need to full up one time. Had I only known…

In closing, we spoke to the local Hertz person who asked about our trip. We explained everything. They in turn explained to us that unless we paid for Roadside assistance Hertz wouldn’t come get the car. “Not even if the engine or transmission or something else went out?” They replied “Not unless you paid extra for the roadside assistance.”

Yeowza. That was disappointing to learn of. Something I thought I would pass on, so others might know. Just in case their car breaks and its their fault. You never know what will happen. To try and gain future business they said they would give us a free car wash if we were in the area and wanted to stop by.

Well, that was our experience. We were most impressed with the management in Phoenix, but can’t really say that too much more came out of it that was overwhelmingly positive.

Until next time
just Pray

Oh Noah.

I am beginning to know how you felt. 40 days and 40 nights must have seemed like an eternity. Don’t you think?

I certainly do.

He just needed some hope…

Phoenix. Man alive… I seriously forgot how hot you were. Seriously. Like it was 11 at night and still 106. I just had simply forgotten. Living in LA and just getting use to the weather was so natural. It felt like things should have all along. Perhaps you have a hot day every once in a while, but even on those days you have nice cool nights. All thanks to that little thing to the west called the Pacific.

Anyway, yeah you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know it is hot in Phoenix, but I was still a little surprised (perhaps more how I just blocked that part out of my memory) how warm it was.

The interview was… Well.. It was something.

I arrived in the lobby some 30 minutes early which isn’t bad considering the drive I had. My parents put Maryia and myself up for a night in Tempe. It was nice considering that I think I may have killed myself driving 7 hours each way + having the assessment/interviews in one day. Getting back to my story, they didn’t know I had spent the night – besides I still had a super long drive in front of me that evening.

The person at the front desk said she would gladly get things moving for me. 20 minutes later I began to get impatient and called the HR person directly. I heard his phone ring in the other room and no more than 2 rings into it he answered. I let him know I had arrived and he said it would be about ten or so more minutes. The front desk lady came out and said to me “you weren’t scheduled until 3pm” and at that point I began to lose faith in the whole purpose of the trip.

What a pain. You made me drive 7 hours to take an assessment to see if I qualify for an interview and now you have the appointment time off by 3 hours? Great first impression.

I waited in the lobby… pacing back and forth. Finally someone arrived, greeted me and brought me upstairs for the assessment/test portion. The assessment it self was interesting.

I snapped a photo of one page of it.

It was a lot like that. Plus personality questions. All in all it was about an hour and 45 minutes to finish. Believe me when I say that it was riveting.

A few minutes later they tell me that they have the results and bring me upstairs to talk further. They told me that I passed with flying colors. Then they told me that someone from HR would interview me shortly.

So had the ‘second’ interview. First one was impromptu with HR. It was different. They asked probably 20 different questions. Not even kidding. I think this place asked the most questions that I have ever been asked during an interview. They even tried to get me to change my answers. Such as the example below…

“What would you do if you read a prescription that wasn’t clear? However.. you believe that you know what the pharmacist / doctor was requesting. Also, you do not have any lead or manager you can ask for help as everyone has left for the day. The person is waiting on the phone for you to fulfill their prescription”

“Well, if I wasn’t 100% sure I would follow the standard operating procedure for that. So if that meant calling the doctor or the pharmacist who made the request … I would do that to clarify.

“… And if you couldn’t reach anyone?”

“I would let the customer know that I would have to contact the appropriate parties and get back with them the next day”

She sat in silence for a moment then said “what if you were really sure you knew what it was supposed to be?” I replied, “unless I was 100% sure, which I wasn’t in this situation, correct?”

“That’s right, you were mostly sure”

“Well then I wouldn’t push the order through. If you make a mistake handling prescriptions you are potentially dealing with someone’s life & I wouldn’t mess with that.”

She pressed, “even if you were really sure you knew what it was supposed to be?” To my reply “unless I was 100% sure, I wouldn’t.”

She then stopped pressing the subject and went on to another question. Multiple questions were asked in this manner of testing to see if you would change your answer. Rather annoying. On top of that – multiple questions were asking for extremely similar scenarios. A few times I may have said something to the effect of “well like I just finished saying in my previous example…”

Needless to say I don’t think I will be hearing from them. I’m not totally sure thats a bad thing either.

Oh Noah. All you wanted as an Olive Branch.

On the first leg of the trip on our way out to Phoenix we received just that.

Driving along I-10 I heard my phone start buzzing.

“Hello?”

The person on the other end was nobody else but the HR person from American Express. They called to offer me the position. They were really impressed with everything and wanted to reach out and offer the job.

Well, lets just say that is one Olive branch that I ended up accepting.

just Pray.

Hey,

I have interviews! New places with low pay.

Not complaining… Trying to make the best of it.

I’ll be traveling to Phoenix to interview with Walgreens. My interview is August 2nd at 12 noon.

I’m also waiting to hear back from a phone interview I had with Wells Fargo.

Both of those positions are around 11/hr but it would be survivable. Or mostly…

Then there is yet another place. On the 25th I had an initial phone interview with American Express. It went so well that they wanted to interview me a second time (via the phone due to distance) and so I had my second interview with them on the 29th. Now I’m waiting to hear back (hopefully by the end of this week). That position pays upwards of 15/hr so it is a better opportunity to survive.

Call center jobs aren’t the worst thing. Besides I really need something to come through.

I am not planning on AmEx. It is more like I am planning on Walgreens or something similar in that pay range.

I keep applying in the LAX, PDX and PHX areas but for some reason Phoenix has been the only one calling.

Go figure. God seems to have quite the sense of humor.

We shall see!

Onward we go!

just Pray